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“LANDED WITH BOTH KNEES UPON THE MIDDLE OF OUR JAILER’S 


(See page 208.) 


BACK.” 


Frontispiece^ 




THE TREASURE OF 
MUSHROOM ROCK 


A STORY OF PROSPECTING IN THE 
ROCKY MOUNTAINS 



BY 


SIDFORD F. HAMP 


ILLUSTRATED 


G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS 
NEW YORK AND LONDON 
^Tbe IRntcherbocher prces 
1899 


1 



r‘ 

y 


40220 

Copyright, 1899 

BY 

SIDFORD F. HAMP 
Entered at Stationers’ Hall, London 





Ube ftniciterbocfccr iprees, ‘new HJorb 


0- v-vA 

V 





CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I — Moseley’s 1 

II — The Flight 19 

III — A False Start 40 

IV — The Man with the Squeaky Voice . 60 

V — Jack; and What he Had to Say . 77 

VI — Two Old Acquaintances ... 96 

VII — Into the Wildejiness .... 113 

VIII — A Queer Country 131 

IX — Squeaky Scores One .... 151 

X — The Valley of the Mushroom Rock, 174 

XI — A Counter-Stroke 194 

XII — A Good Riddance 211 

XIII — The Cleaning op the Pot-Holes . 230 

XIV — High Time to Leave .... 248 

XV— A Way Out 274 

XVI — All Accounts Squared . . . 294 

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ILLUSTRATIONS 

y/ PAGE 

“Landed with Both Knees upon the Middle 

OP OUR Jailer’s Back” . . Frontispiece 

“ I Waved the Light to and fro in Front 

OF me” 70 

’'^“He Looked doavn upon the Two Unsuspect- 
ing Campers ” 107 

“ Drop that ! ” . . . . . . . 164 

Out Came a Little Patch of Yellow Gold.” 247 

"^“It was with a Feeling of Awe that we 

Gathered around the Dead Man” . . 312 


V 





THE TREASURE 
OF MUSHROOM ROCK 


CHAPTER I 

Moseley’s 

O NE windy night in April, some five-and- 
twenty years ago, the young moon, peep- 
ing now and then between the scudding wisps 
1 of cloud, seemed to be maintaining a careful 
[ watch upon a little incident which was taking 
place outside the windows of Moseley’s school 
— a large brick building standing in a walled 
i enclosure. 

: Save for the roaring of the wind in the elm- 

I trees, no sound was to be heard until, presently, 
the clock in the old church-tower struck eleven. 
As if the striking of the hour had been a signal, 
a boy suddenly appeared, stepping softly from 


2 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

the shadow of the enclosure wall. Picking up 
a small pebble, he cast it up at one of the win- 
dows. The window opened immediately and a 
second boy appeared. The one below gave two 
clicks with his tongue; whereupon the boy 
above let fall from the window a white bundle, 
which, instead of dropping upon the ground, 
unfolded itself and hung suspended. In the 
half-darkness the object looked very like two 
sheets knotted together to form a rope. That 
it was indeed intended to serve as a rope became 
at once evident, for the second boy, getting 
astride of the window-ledge, seized the sheet 
with one hand, and letting go his hold of the 
ledge came squirming and twisting down to the 
ground. 

Having paused for an instant to listen, the 
two boys tiptoed away and were presently lost 
in the shadow. A moment later they reap- 
peared on the top of the wall, dropped upon 
the outer side, stood still again for an instant to 
listen and peer about, and then, seemingly satis- 
fied that there was nobody moving, they turned 
their faces southward and went running, 
down the white chalk road until they vanished 
among the trees at the bottom of the hill. 

How it came about that Percy Goodall, an 


3 


Moseley’s 

American boy, and I, Tom Swayne, an English 
boy, were ]*iinning away together that windy 
night in April from Moseley’s school in the 
south of England, what led to our flight, and 
what came of it, form the subjects of the tale I 
have set out to chronicle; having been urged 
to undertake the task by Percy’s father and 
mine, and by our kind old friend, Sir Anthony 
Ringwood. 

Percy’s father was the American Consul at 
one of the large seaport towns on the English 
Channel. His duties, of course, obliged him to 
live on the spot, but thinking that a smoky 
town, swarming with rough sailors of all nations 
and with many undesirable characters, was not 
the best place for a boy, he cast about for a 
good school to which he might send his son. 
After many and careful inquiries he settled 
upon Moseley’s, and accordingly, at the end of 
one Christmas holidays, Percy being then four- 
teen years old, his father took him up there and 
left him, a forlorn little scrap of humanity, 
alone in a land of strangers. 

He was not alone for long, however, nor did 
he long continue to feel like a stranger, for on 
the following day we boys all came trooping 
back to school. There were about sixty of us. 


4 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


varying in ages from nine to nineteen. Most of 
ns boarded in the houses of the different mas- 
ters, but a few were day-boys, whose homes 
were in the village. Of these, I, Tom Swayne, 
the vicar’s son, was one. 

As soon as it was discovered that there was 
a new boy, and that boy an American, Percy 
became a centre of attraction to the whole 
school. None of us had ever seen an American 
before, and we therefore inspected the new- 
comer with great interest. We found a sturdy, 
active, bright-eyed youngster, who, instead of 
being arrayed, as we had half expected, in 
striped trousers, a star-spangled coat, and a 
chimney-pot ” hat with the fur all turned the 
wrong way, was clothed like any of ourselves. 
In fact, except for the mispronunciation — as it 
seemed to us — of a few words, we could not see 
wherein an American differed from anybody 
else. 

Percy and I very soon became friends. We 
had our desks next to each other in school, and 
we were put into the same class, occupying at 
first the two bottom places ; an arrangement, 
however, which did not last very long, for Percy, 
as soon as he got the hang of things,” to use 
his own expression, began to move up in the 


5 


Moseley’s 

class, leaving me to occupy my accustomed 
place at the bottom by myself. He was quick 
at learning Latin and Greek ; whereas I never 
could do anything in the classical languages — 
and unfortunately for me Latin and Greek 
formed the backbone of our studies at Moseley’s. 

But though in the matter of scholarship 
there was a good deal of difference between 
Percy and me, that fact did not prevent us 
from becoming the best of friends ; for in most 
other respects there were many points of re- 
semblance between us. We were both fond of 
all kinds of athletic exercise, and both were 
good at any game requiring strength and agil- 
ity. Many a time did the spirit of adventure 
get us into scrapes with Sir Anthony Ring- 
wood’s keepers ; many an exploring expedition 
did we make togethei-, far out upon Salisbury 
Plain in one direction, and down to the New 
Forest in the other ; and, to be honest, I fear I 
must admit that when any particularly ingenious 
piece of mischief was reported to old Moseley, 
the Head-master, it was pretty sure to have 
been Percy who had thought of it, and the pair 
of us who had taken the* lead in carrying it 
out. 

Of all the attractive places in the neighbour- 


6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


hood, however, the one to which we most re- 
sorted was Hengist’s Castle, a handsome old 
ruin standing on a small elevation about a mile 
from Moseley’s ; and there is one incident con- 
nected with our explorations of this ancient 
edifice which is so closely associated with our 
subsequent adventures that I must not pass it 
over in silence. 

My father and mother took a great liking for 
my American chum — they admired his bidght- 
ness and his transparent honesty — and both of 
them, my mother especially, to make him feel 
that though a stranger in the land he was not 
exactly a foreigner, as a French boy would have 
been, made him welcome to the vicarage when- 
ever he chose to come, and as we were always 
together, that was pretty often. On one of 
these occasions, a wet Saturday afternoon, Percy, 
poking about among the neglected volumes on 
the top shelves of the library, came upon a 
musty old leather-bound history of Hengist’s 
Castle. Among the many anecdotes scattered 
through this book there was one in particular 
which attracted his attention. It told how, 
“once upon a time,” a certain Sir Gregory Pow- 
lett had taken refuge in the castle ; how he was 
at supper in the dining-hall one evening, when 


7 


Moseley’s 

there came a clank of mailed feet and a thun- 
dering at the door, and the soldiers of that venge- 
ful tyrant, Richard III., had burst upon the 
scene ; and how Sir Gregory had but time to fly 
to the fireplace, whence, though there was a 
fire burning at the time, he had succeeded in 
gaining the secret passage. 

This story set Percy thinking. If there had 
been a secret passage in the days of Richard 
III., why should it not be there yet ? He com- 
municated his idea to me, and we determined 
to set about a systematic search for it. From 
the diagrams and pictures with which the his- 
tory was embellished we made out the situation 
of the dining-hall and the fireplace, and one 
half-holiday, without a word of our intention to 
anybody, we commenced our exploration. 

Of the original walls of the dining-hall there 
was but one left standing ; the others had been 
knocked to pieces by Cromwell’s men. This 
wall abutted against the ancient Keep, a square 
tower of considerable altitude, and was itself 
some seven feet thick and thirty feet high ; 
covered, in many places to the top, with a heavy 
mat of ivy. In the thickness of the wall the 
chimney was built, a shaft five feet square at 
the bottom, but diminishing in size a short 


8 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


distance from the ground to one half those 
dimensions. 

Standing in the fireplace, Percy and I peered 
about for an opening somewhere, but could see 
none. There was no stone panel working on a 
hinge, which was what we had rather expected 
to find, nor anything in the nature of steps by 
which we might climb the chimney. Overhead 
all was dark, for the shaft, besides contracting 
suddenly, had in it a bend which prevented us 
from seeing out at the top. 

“ I ’ll tell you what,” said Percy : “ we must 
get upon the top of the wall somehow and look 
down. I expect we can climb up by the ivy.” 

The ivy outside was probably older than 
that inside the hall ; at any rate it was thicker 
and reached higher. We therefore went out- 
side, and choosing a spot where the mass of 
leaves was at least three feet in thickness and 
the stem of the plant about six inches in dia- 
meter, we went scrambling to the top and then 
made our way along the uneven surface of the 
broken wall until we came to the hole we were 
seeking, which we found to be level with the 
top of the wall and half concealed by the 
ivy. 

Apparently we were no better off than before. 


9 


Moseley’s 

however. We could see nothing, and we were 
afraid to attempt the descent of the inside of the 
chimney, for a fall to the bottom would pretty 
certainly result in some broken bones, to say 
nothing of a broken neck. 

‘^Look here, Percy,” said I, “let us go back 
to the vicarage and bring up a rope — there is 
one in the gardener’s tool-house, I know — and 
then we will fasten it to something and climb 
down the chimney.” 

This suggestion met with Percy’s approval ; 
and in half an hour we were back again, rope 
in hand. 

“Do you think you can hold it, Tom, while 
I go down ? ” asked Percy. 

“ I don’t know,” I replied. “ The rope is 
rather small, and it might slip through my 
hands. If we can take a turn with it round 
something I could hold it then.” 

After a short search we found, some distance 
below the top of the wall, a dressed stone im- 
bedded in the masonry and projecting about 
eighteen inches into the dining-hall. What it 
was there for we did not know, nor did we 
care, so long as it would serve our purpose. 
After one or two casts I succeeded in looping 
the rope under the stone, when, firmly holding 


lo The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

one end, I sat down on the edge of the chimney 
with my feet braced against the other side and 
gave the word to Percy to descend. 

Having the rope to hold by, Percy found no 
difficulty in scrambling down the dark hole 
until his feet came against the uppermost of 
three little ledges built in the sloping wall of 
the chimney. Securing a firm foothold, he 
took from his pocket a fragment of candle, 
lighted it, and commenced spying up and down 
for an opening. None was to be seen ; three of 
the walls, at any rate, were solid. He turned 
round on the ledge. There, close against his 
face, was a dark passage about two feet square, 
so cleverly placed in the overhanging wall as to 
be invisible either from above or below. 

Tom ! ” My name came booming up the 
chimney. 

“ Hallo ! ” I shouted in reply. 

I Ve found it ! ” 

Found what ? The passage ? ” 

‘‘Yes. Right here. Can you see the candle?” 

“ Oh, yes.” 

“ Well, it is right in front of me ; but it is as 
dark as pitch inside. Wait a moment; I will 
reach in as far as I can and see if I can see any- 
thing.” 


II 


Moseley’s 

He did so ; aod immediately, fluff ! — out 
went the candle, and I heard him exclaim. 
Hi ! B-rrr ! Get out ! ’^ 

What is it?” I shouted. 

‘^Bats. A dozen of them. They flew right 
into my face.” 

“ I say, Percy,” I called down to him, can 
you stand without the rope ? ” 

Oh, yes.” 

‘‘Well, then, let go. I’m going to tie the 
two ends together and come down too.” 

This was soon done, and down I went, my 
knees braced against one side of the chimney 
and my shoulders against the other. Standing 
upon the top ledge, while Percy stood upon the 
lowest one, I lit my candle — for we had “an- 
nexed ” a couple of candle-ends when we went 
down for the rope. 

“ That’s the passage, all right,” said I. “ But 
how did that old buffer in the history-book 
ever get up to it ? Ah, I see. Look here — 
come up a step. Do you see this big iron staple 
with three rusty links of chain attached to it ? 
The chain must have hung down into the fire- 
place once, so that an active fellow might pull 
himself up by it and draw it up after him. But 
I suppose the rain, running down the chimney 


12 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


for two hundred years, has rusted it all away. 
These links look pretty rotten themselves.” 

They were, indeed, pretty rotten ; for, as I 
spoke, I picked up one of them and broke it to 
pieces with my finger and thumb quite easily. 
The staple itself, however, being thicker, and 
being placed farther inside the passage, was 
still perfectly sound. 

Come on,” said Percy. “ Let us crawl down 
the passage and see where it leads to.” 

After crawling for a short distance we found 
that the roof of the passage rose sufficiently to 
enable us to stand upright, and directly after- 
wards we came upon a flight of stone stairs 
ascending into the darkness. Up these we 
went, ten steps, emerging presently through a 
square hole into a little room, in which were a 
small fireplace and a window, the latter covered 
with ivy. Looking through this window we 
could see the school and the village, and we 
guessed at once that the room was built in the 
wall of the Keep, which we knew to be im- 
mensely thick. 

As may be supposed, we were highly jubil- 
ant over our discovery. We decided at once 
that we would keep our secret to ourselves, if 
possible ; that the room should be our own priv- 


13 


Moseley’s 

ate den, to which nobody, on any pretence 
whatever, should be admitted. 

The first thing to be done was to provide 
some ready means of access to the passage, and 
this we accomplished before the day was out. 

Procuring from the village blacksmith a stout 
iron bar, we laid it across one corner of the 
chimney-top in receptacles made for the purpose 
by prying up some of the stones, and having re- 
set the stones as well as we could, the first part 
of our task was completed. The next thing 
was to attach to the bar one half of the rope, 
which I had begged from my father, and after 
tying a short, stout piece of wood every two 
feet of its length, to drop it down the chimney. 
The other half of the rope we tied in like man- 
ner to the big staple in the entrance of the pas- 
sage, and as it reached to within seven feet of 
the hearthstone we were able to go up or down 
as we liked. There was little chance that any- 
body would discover the end of the rope in the 
chimney, for, though the boys were in the habit 
of playing hide-and-seek about the castle, they 
were all aware that there was nowhere to hide 
in the fireplace, while the occasional tourist 
was unlikely to go in there at all. 

As our den contained a fireplace of its own. 


1 4 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


and as the weather was chilly, for it was just 
after the Christmas holidays, — Percy’s second 
Christmas at the school, — it naturally occurred 
to us that we ought to have a supply of fire- 
wood. But fire-wood is a scarce article in Eng- 
land, and we were obliged to search the hedge- 
rows and spinneys for a long distance around 
for dead sticks ere we could collect a sufficient 
supply. With infinite labour we succeeded in 
getting together about a cart-load, which we 
hoisted in small bundles up the chimney and 
carried to the den ; and then, of coui*se, we 
must straightway light a fire to test the draw- 
ing qualities of our fireplace. 

We had been standing by the fire, warming 
ourselves, for a quarter of an hour, or so, when 
Percy, happening to look out of the window, 
exclaimed : 

“Why! What is the matter down in the 
village? The whole population seems to be 
coming up here.” 

“ It ’s the smoke ! ” I cried. “ It ’s the smoke 
pouring out of the top of the Keep. They are 
coming up to see what is the cause of it. We 
must hurry out and pull up our ropes; they 
might find them.” 

Back we went in great haste ; detached the 


15 


Moseley’s 

ropes and pulled them up ; drew the ivy over 
the iron bar, and scrambled down the wall. 
Then, Percy taking one of the ropes and I the 
other, we wound them round and round our 
bodies and buttoned our coats over them. They 
made us look absurdly fat, but that could not 
be helped. Then we ran round the bottom of 
the hill and joined the procession of villagers 
from behind. 

It was not surprising that their attention had 
been attracted. We had built a roaring fire in 
the hope of taking the chill out of the walls of 
the den, and some of the wood being rather 
damp, an immense volume of smoke was rolling 
away from the summit of the old tower. 

The men and boys, including Percy and my- 
self, at once dispersed all over the castle in 
search of the fire ; every spot, likely or unlikely, 
was inspected, without result, and presently 
everybody congregated again at the base of the 
Keep, whence the mysterious smoke was still 
pouring in clouds, to discuss the meaning of this 
wonderful phenomenon. Percy and I were in 
perfect ecstasies of delight as we listened to the 
varied opinions of the astonished villagers; it 
was with the greatest difficulty we could restrain 
our laughter. 


1 6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


Do ’ee know what ’t is makes thicky smo-ak ? ” 
said one old fellow in a smock-frock. ’T is my 
opinion it be gho-asts.” 

Or witches,” added another, turning pale at 
his own idea. 

Everybody shook his head and looked serious ; 
for the farm-labourer of the south of England 
firmly believed in witches at that time — and 
probably he does so still, for he is of a slow- 
moving race. 

One man, however, a big young fellow in a 
velveteen coat, scouted the idea. He was one 
of Sir Anthony Ring wood’s keepers. 

“ Witches and ghosts ! ” he exclaimed, scorn- 
fully. ’T ain’t neither one nor t’ other ; ’t is 
poachers, that ’s what ’tis. They ’ve bin and 
found some room in the castle as nobody knows 
on, and ’t is them as is making this ’ere smoke.” 

But this very reasonable idea of our friend in 
velveteen was received with equal scorn by the 
others. They preferred the witch theory. I 
have no doubt but that every single one of them 
took care to stop up his keyhole that night, in 
case one of the witches, offended at this officious 
prying into her affairs, should think fit to pay 
him a visit. 

Having concluded their fruitless search, the 


Moseley’s 17 

party returned to their homes ; while Percy and 
I, readjusting the ropes, went back to the den, 
where we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting 
by the fire and chuckling over the mystification 
of the villagers. 

But though the villagers had no trouble in 
deciding that the supernatural smoke was due to 
the agency of witchcraft. Sir Anthony was by no 
means so easily satisfied. The old Baronet was 
the largest landowner and chief magnate of the 
neighbourhood. He had been a great sports- 
man in his day, having shot buffaloes on the 
plains of America and tigers in the Indian 
jungles, and though he was now too old for such 
enterprises, he was still as keen as ever with his 
gun, and preserved the game upon his large es- 
tates with great strictness. Poachers were the 
bane of his existence ; and his declaration that 
he would prosecute to the utmost extent of the 
law anyone found infringing upon his game- 
rights was well known to us and to everybody 
else in the village. 

The poachers happened to be particularly 
active at this time, and the young keeper’s the- 
ory that some of that troublesome fraternity 
had discovered a secret chamber in the castle 
found favour with the better-educated people of 


1 8 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


the neighbourhood ; Sir Anthony in particular 
was convinced of its correctness. In conse- 
quence, he ordered a strict examination of the 
old ruin to be made under the direction of the 
head-keeper, a very intelligent man ; but Percy 
and I, getting wind of his intention, removed 
the telltale ropes, and as the ivy was not strong 
enough to bear the weight of a grown man, none 
of the keepers could get upon the top of the 
wall, and our secret therefore remained a se- 
cret, its value being only enhanced by the won- 
der which the mystery excited in the whole 
community. 




CHAPTER II 


THE FLIGHT 


OME six months previous to our discovery of 



^ the secret chamber, it happened that all the 
boys in our class at school had been takeu with a 
desire to become archers, — the result of reading 
the story of Robin Hood, — and Percy and I, 
among the rest, had procured bows and arrows, 
and had spent many hours practising at a sack 
full of straw suspended from a bough in the 
playground. With the others the craze, as such 
crazes will, had died out again in a short time ; 
we two alone kept it up. For one thing, my 
chum’s persevering nature impelled him, having 
undertaken to be an archer, to be one ; another 
reason was that our bows were very superior to 
those of the other boys. In the churchyard 
there grew a splendid old yew-tree, the pride of 
the village, and we, young rascals that we were, 
had purloined from it two straight branches. 


20 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


which, with great pains, we had fashioned into 
very serviceable bows. By constant practice 
we became highly respectable shots, and many a 
luckless small bird did we thoughtlessly slay for 
the mere pleasure of killing ; we even became 
so expert as now and then to kill a rabbit on 
the wing,” as Percy put it. 

The favourite place for our shooting expedi- 
tions was the Cross-roads Spinney, a triangular 
piece of ground of eight or nine acres, well covered 
with trees, which lay about two miles from 
the village. It belonged to nobody, or rather, 
being claimed by Sir Anthony and by the Parish, 
it had for many years lain in Chancery ; a state 
of affairs which suited us very well, for, while 
the lawsuit dragged along, we boys appropriated 
the place for our own happy hunting-ground. 
Bordering as it did upon Sir Anthony’s best 
game-preserve, it was a source of great annoyance 
to the old Baronet that the title could not be 
settled, for many a pheasant flew over the wall 
to roost in the spinney, and very seldom did it 
ever fly back again ; somebody was sure to get 
it. Then, too, the gypsies would frequently 
encamp there, to Sir Anthony’s great disgust ; 
for, with him and his keepers, “ gypsy ” and 
“ poacher ” were synonymous terms. 


21 


The Flight 

This spinney was not far from Hengist’s 
Castle, and the belief that the poachers who 
were just now giving so much trouble were 
harbouring in the ruins, kept all the keepers on 
the alert, not only in the hope of laying hands on 
the culprits, but of discovering their hiding- 
place. 

One evening in April, Percy and I were re- 
turning from a shooting expedition, bearing our 
spoils, one rabbit each, in our hands, when we 
were overtaken by one of our school-fellows, — 
Bates, senior, by name, — with whom, though 
there were no active hostilities between us, we 
had long been “ at outs.” We did not like him, 
and he returned the compliment. 

That I may not do him an injustice, I must 
explain that Bates had some reason for his 
antipathy. He was an orphan, his affairs 
being managed by a crusty old lawyer in Lon- 
don, whose idea of the proper discharge of the 
duties of a guardian was confined to the remit- 
ting of so much money to his ward every three 
months — more money than a boy ought to have 
at command — and in taking no further notice 
of him until next quarter-day came round. Bates 
was thus in a manner thrown upon the wwld to 
follow his own bent, and, unfortunately for him, 


22 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


his bent had one very serious twist in it, — he 
was a born gambler. 

Old Moseley was aware of his pupil’s pro- 
clivities. He had found him out once in a 
horse-racing transaction whereby Bates had lost 
a considerable sum of money, and had warned 
him that at the next offence he would have to 
leave the school ; a warning which seemed to 
have had the desired effect, for during some 
months thereafter Bates desisted. 

One day, however, Percy and I, ranging the 
woods in search of birds’-nests, came suddenly 
upon Bates and a stranger seated on the ground 
with a handkerchief spread between them, 
shaking dice for shillings. The disconcerted 
gambler, when he saw he was discovered, sprang 
to his feet and advanced upon us with a threat- 
ening air, but, though he was three years older 
and three inches taller than either of us, Percy 
and I were not afraid of him, and Bates, know- 
ing, probably, that we were a pair hard to beat, 
— which I think I may assert without risking 
the charge of bragging, — thought better of it, 
and, changing his manner, invited us to join the 
game — an invitation we promptly declined. He 
then fell to begging us to say nothing about it. 
This we promised — with a reservation. 


23 


The Flight 

“ Look here, Bates,” said Percy, who was 
usually the spokesman for the pair ; of course 
we won’t say anything about it. Why should 
we ? But if old Moseley asks us any ques- 
tions we are not going to tell him any lies.” 

I nodded my head in approval. Bates, who 
seemed to regard such scruples as absurd, tried 
in vain to argue us out of this resolution, and 
was obliged finally to content himself with the 
assurance we had given him. 

To have been defied by two boys younger 
than himself was bad enough ; to be at the 
mercy of their possibly indiscreet tongues was 
worse. From that time forth, fearing that the 
incident might come to light, Bates, all unsus- 
pected by us, set his wits to work to oust us 
from the school, if possible, and by a curious, 
roundabout course he succeeded at last, though 
in a manner he could hardly have expected, 
and with results he was very far fi*om antici- 
pating. 

Since the occurrence of the dice-shaking in- 
cident Percy and I had held no intercourse 
with him, and we were therefore somewhat sur- 
prised and quite well pleased when Bates, over- 
taking us that evening, checked his pace and 
spoke to us. 


24 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


“ I say, you fellows,” said he ; “ don’t you 
think it is about time we made friends again ? ” 

It occurred to me that this way of putting it 
was hardly correct, as we had never been friends 
before ; but Percy did not notice it, and putting 
out his hand, he said, “ All right. Bates ; I ’m 
willing if you are.” 

Percy was of that straightforward, unsuspi- 
cious nature that it never entered his mind that 
Bates could have any ulterior motive for his 
friendly advances ; while, as for myself, I was 
accustomed to follow my chum’s lead without 
much consideration for the consequences. Ac- 
cordingly we shook hands all round and walked 
on side by side, glad to think that the feud was 
ended. 

^‘You haven’t been to the spinney to-day, 
have you ? ” asked Bates. 

‘‘No,” replied Percy. “We went up the 
Roman road to Crabtree’s farm. There are lots 
of rabbits there, and old Crabtree is glad to 
have them shot; they are so thick as to be just 
a nuisance.” 

“Well,” said Bates, “I’ve just come by the 
spinney, and I saw something that made me 
think of you two fellows and your bows and 
arrows. I had an idea ; and you can help me 


25 


The Flight 

to carry it out if you like. In fact, to be hon- 
est, that was why I proposed to you to be 
friends again.” 

We were rather pleased at this “ honest ” con- 
fession. Bates was not such a bad fellow after 
all, perhaps. 

“ What is your idea ? ” asked Percy. 

“ I ’ll tell you. As I was coming along I saw 
five pheasants fiy over Sir Anthony’s park- wall 
and alight in the spinney. I crept in there, and 
there they were, all settling themselves for the 
night in a young fir-tree. Then I thought of 
you. What do you say to going out to-night 
and having a try for them ? You can bring 
your bows and arrows, and I ’ll show you the 
place. What do you say ? ” 

“But, look here. Bates,” said I. “Isn’t it 
against the law to shoot pheasants ? ” 

“Oh, no,” said Bates confidently. “If you 
were to shoot them on Sir Anthony’s land, that 
would be poaching, of course ; but in the spin- 
ney a pheasant belongs to anybody who can 
get it.” 

“ Are you sure ? ” asked Percy. 

“ Certain, quite certain,” Bates declared with 
much emphasis. “You would not catch me 
going after pheasants if there was any fear of 


26 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


getting into prison for it. No, thank you. You 
may be sure of that.” 

It does seem pretty I’easonable,” said Percy, 
that game found on land that belongs to no- 
body in particular should be the property of 
anyone who can get it ; and if you ’re sure you’ re 
right. Bates, I think we may as well go. Eh, 
Tom ? ” 

Percy, naturally enough, knew almost nothing 
of the English game-laws, and, as for myself, 
I knew but little more. I was aware that rab- 
bits were not game — in the eye of the law — 
and that pheasants were, but whether it were 
an illegal act to kill a pheasant in a public place 
like the spinney I had no knowledge. But as 
Bates was not afraid to venture (and we had no 
great opinion of his courage) ; as we were both 
very desirous of shooting a pheasant; and as, 
in fine, we possessed that common attribute of 
schoolboys, the habit of acting first and think- 
ing afterwards, we decided to go. 

At eight o’clock that evening, therefore. 
Bates, carrying a bag for the reception of the 
game, called for us at the vicarage, where Percy 
and I were waiting for him, and together we 
set off for our hunting-ground by a short cut 
across the fields. 


27 


The Flight 

We had nearly reached our destination, when 
Bates, vaulting over the gate which led from 
one field to another, managed somehow to en- 
tangle his feet in the game-bag and fell upon 
his hands and knees on the farther side, at the 
same time uttering a sharp exclamation of 
pain. 

“ Have you hurt yourself ? ” asked Percy, 
solicitously, seeing that our guide remained sit- 
ting on the ground clasping one ankle with both 
hands. 

“ I 'm afraid I Ve twisted my ankle a little,” 
replied Bates, suppressing a groan with seeming 
difficulty. 

Well, that is hard luck,” said Percy. “ That 
ends our expedition for to-night, sure enough. 
Look here. Bates. Put one arm over Swayne’s 
shoulders and the other over mine and we ’ll 
help you along back to the schoolhouse as fast 
as we can. If you can’t do it in that way, we ’ll 
carry you pick-a-back in turns. I expect we 
can manage it if we rest often enough.” 

‘‘Oh, no,” returned Bates. “We won’t give 
up our expedition yet, now that we have come 
this far. I am afraid I had better not try to 
walk any farther myself, but you two can go on 
and get the pheasants. You won’t be gone 


28 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


more than half an hour, I suppose, and then 
you can come back to me and give me a hand 
home. I ’ll just sit here and wait for you.” 

At first we were very much opposed to this 
course, but Bates insisting, we at length agreed 
to go on, and accordingly, taking with us the 
game-bag, and leaving him propped up wdth his 
back against the gate, we hurried otf. 

We soon spotted the young fir-tree, the po- 
sition of which Bates had carefully described 
to us, and th'ere, sure enough, were the pheas- 
ants; we could see them, like dark blotches, 
against the sky. 

^Wou take the first shot,” whispered Percy. 

Choosing the lowest bird, that its fall might 
not disturb the others, I let fly, and down it 
came with hardly a flutter. Percy then took a 
shot, with equal success. We placed the two 
birds at the foot of the tree, and were stooping 
to pull out the arrows, when we were suddenly 
pounced upon from behind, and a voice in my 
ear, a voice strangely familiar, said : 

“These are your poachers, Keeper, caught in 
the act. Sir Anthony will give you a five- 
pound note for this, you may depend.” 

“ Thanks to you, sir,” said the keeper, who 
was holding Percy by the collar. “ Bring the 


29 


The Flight 

young gent along; they’ll spend the rest of the 
night in the lock-up.” 

My assailant transferred his grip to my collar, 
and I was then able to turn my head and look 
at him. It was Bates. 

What are you up to, Bates ? ” I exclaimed, 
giving him a dig in the stomach with my elbow. 

What do you mean by calling us poachers ? 
You know perfectly well we are not poaching.” 

‘‘ Oh, yes, you are, though,” replied Bates, 
with a complacent snigger. ^‘Are they not. 
Keeper ? ” 

‘‘Yes, sir,” replied the keeper — it was the 
big young man who had helped the villagers in 
the search for our fire in the castle. “They ’re 
poaching, sure enough. ’T ain’t the first time, 
neither, I ’ll lay a tanner.” 

“What rot you are talking. Keeper ! ” I blurted 
out. “You know just as well as I do that this 
isn’t Sir Anthony’s land.” 

“ Ah, but it is, though,” replied the grinning 
keeper ; and Bates burst out laughing. 

“ Perhaps you did n’t know,” said he, “ that 
the Chancery suit was settled three days ago in 
favour of Sir Anthony. This spinney is part of 
his preserves now; and you are caught poach- 
ing, my fine fellows. You ’ll never see your 


30 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


native land again, my little Yankee,” shaking 
his fist at Percy. If you ’re not hung you ’ll 
be transported for life. Oh, this is fine ! I 
think I ’ve squared accounts with the pair of 
you now, you young beggars.” 

Then the whole extent of Bates’ villany burst 
upon us. He had known of the settlement of 
the lawsuit, and he had pretended to make 
friends with us that evening solely with the 
object of drawing us into this trap. His twisted 
ankle was merely a part of the trick, contrived 
beforehand. 

I was so enraged at his unparalleled meanness 
that I squirmed around in his grasp, and seizing 
him by the arms, I set to work kicking his shins 
with enthusiastic vigour. This was more than 
Bates had bargained for. He hopped about, 
first on one leg and then on the other, struggling 
to break from my grasp, and yelling to the 
keeper to come and help him. But the keeper 
was fully occupied in holding Percy ; so Bates 
and I had it out between us. I hope I am not 
of a very vindictive nature, but I confess I long 
remembered with satisfaction the sound made 
by my stout English shoes as they cracked 
against the shins of the howling Bates. 

At length he broke away and fled ; when I 


31 


The Flight 

instantly ran to the assistance of Percy. Com- 
ing up behind the keeper I seized him by the 
hair, pulling his head back so that his face was 
turned up to the sky. Down he came to his 
knees, and leaving his hold of Percy he at- 
tempted to grasp me by the wrist. This, how. 
ever, was just what I was expecting, and giving 
him a sharp push I threw him forward upon his 
face. 

The next moment Percy and I were out of the 
wood and scudding down the road. 

The indignant keeper was up and after us 
like a shot ; we could hear his heavy shoes 
coming, clip-clopy on the hard road behind us. 
We were just beginning to think we should out- 
run him when he blew a shrill whistle, in re- 
sponse to which two other keepers suddenly 
appeared in the road a hundred yards ahead. 
They supposed they had caught us then ; but 
they were mistaken. Without an instant’s 
hesitation Percy swerved to one side, put down 
his head, shut his eyes, and dashed at the 
quickset hedge which bordered the road. He 
burst half-way through, when a push from me 
sent him forward upon his hands and knees on 
the other side. I dived into the gap he had 
made, and Percy, seizing me by the arm, dragged 


32 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


me through, just as the young keeper came pant- 
ing up behind. 

Away we went across country, heading 
straight for the castle, and after a smart run of 
nearly a mile we dashed into the old dining-hall — 
still fifty yards ahead of our pursuers. Calling to 
Percy to take to the chimney, I bolted through 
the arched doorway of the hall and scrambled 
up the ivy, reaching the top in time to see the 
young keeper pop into the fireplace down below. 
He had evidently seen Percy go in there, and 
supposed he had caught him as in a trap. 
Great was his surprise, therefore, to find the 
place empty. 

Soon Bates and the other two men came up, 
and as I lay on the top of the wall, peeping 
over, I could hear their conversation. 

Gone up the chimney, have they ? ” said 
Bates. “ Then they can’t escape : they will 
have to come down again sometime. I ’ll tell 
you what it is, men : these are the poachers 
who have been making this smoke that has been 
puzzling everybody so much ; they have found 
some secret chamber up the chimney here. I 
wonder what Sir Anthony will say when he 
hears who it is that has been stealing his 
pheasants so long.” 


33 


The Flight 

“ He ’ll prosecute ’em, sir ; you may depend 
on it,” said one of the keepers. “ He told me, 
only this morning, he did n’t care who it was, 
he ’d prosecute ’em to the full extent of the 
law.” 

“ I hope he will ; they deserve it — the young 
rascals. Look here, men ” 

Bates and the three keepers fell to whisper- 
ing together ; I could no longer hear what was 
said. Presently they withdrew to either side 
of the fireplace and stood motionless, except 
that Bates occasionally rubbed his shins. It 
was plain that they expected that, if they kept 
quiet, we, supposing they had gone, would come 
down to be pounced upon. 

I put my face over the opening of the chimney 
and gave a click with my tongue; Percy an- 
swered the signal ; and then I whispered to 
him to come up. Soon his head appeared, and 
creeping out of the hole he pulled up the rope 
and laid it on the wall. 

Did you pull up the other rope ? ” I asked. 

“ Part way. I lodged it on one of the ledges 
below the passage. What are they doing down 
there ? ” 

Waiting for us to come down.” 

We peered over the wall. Seemingly the 

3 


34 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


enemy had already tired of waiting, for they 
were holding another whispered consultation, 
which resulted in the disappearance of two of 
the keepers into the fireplace. Presently we 
heard a muffled voice exclaim : 

“ There ’s a rope up here. Give me your 
stick, Andrew, and I ’ll hook it down.” 

Bates and the remaining keeper immediately 
crowded into the fireplace, and we, listening 
down the chimney, heard a scrabbling and a 
scuffing, and then a light appeared, and the same 
voice said: 

^‘Here ’s a passage. Here ’s three candles 
and a half, and candle-grease all along. That ’s 
where they ’ve gone. I ’m a-going to crawl in 
there.” 

“ Hold up a bit, Jim,” the young keeper called 
out ; “I’m coming too.” 

“ So will I,” cried the other, whose curiosity 
was excited by the discovery of a passage ; and, 
“ So will I,” cried Bates, who did not choose to 
be left alone in the shadowy old ruin. 

There was a great deal of scufflng and sci*ap- 
ing, and we two, lying fiat on the wall with one 
eye each over the edge of the orifice, saw four 
pairs of heels alternately kick and struggle 
and finally disappear down the passage. 


35 


The Flight 

“ Come on, Percy,” I exclaimed. Let us get 
down the wall while we can.” 

^^Wait a bit,” he replied. ‘‘There’s some- 
thing else to be done first.” 

To my surprise he let down the rope and van- 
ished into the chimney again. He was back in 
a minute, howevei*, and pulling up the rope, he 
sprang to his feet and cried : 

“ Now we ’re all right. They won’t catch us 
to-night, I think.” 

“ What did you go down for ? ” I asked. 

“ I cut the other rope and dropped it into the 
fireplace.” 

Instead of the enemy catching us, we had 
caught the enemy. 

We were soon down upon the ground again, 
and on our homeward way, but on rounding the 
corner of the Keep we espied a glimmer of light 
coming through the ivy-leaves which covered 
the window of our private den. 

“ Let us hail them,” said Percy ; and on my 
acquiescing he called out, “ Hallo, up there ! ” 

Immediately the leaves parted, and a face, 
illuminated by a candle, appeared. It was 
Bates. At his exclamation of surprise on see- 
ing us — for the moon was up — his face was at 
once surrounded by those of the three keepers. 


36 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


who gazed in wonder at our unexpected ap- 
pearance. 

“ Good-bye, Keepers,” cried Percy. I Ve 
cut the rope in the chimney, and you can’t get 
out. I ’m sorry to inconvenience you, but I ’m 
afraid you are likely to starve to death. There ’s 
plenty of firewood, and there are three spar- 
rows and a blackbird hanging on a nail in the 
corner; they will keep 3^ou alive for a day or 
two ; after that you can cook Bates. Good-bye.” 

With that we turned our backs upon the 
prisoners and set off at a brisk trot for the 
vicarage. 

There was a summer-house in one corner of 
the vicarage garden, and to this we repaired in 
order that we might consult as to our future 
proceedings. 

“ Do you believe that poaching is a hanging 
matter, Tom ? ” asked Percy. “ I remember my 
father telling me that there were once two hun- 
dred and forty hanging offences in England, and 
this one might have been left over when they 
repealed the others.” 

“ I believe it is not,” I replied. “ But it is 
imprisonment, I ’m sure.” 

What are we to do, then ? We were caught 
poaching; there seems to be no doubt about 


37 


The Flight 

that. We did n’t intend it, of course, but I’m 
afraid Sir Anthony may not take that into con- 
sideration; he appears to be so hot against 
poachers. And for that matter, we may not 
have a chance to tell our side of the story at 
all, because in England, I ’ve heard, a prisoner 
is not allowed to give evidence in his own de- 
fence. So, there we are, you see. Four wit- 
nesses against us and none for us. Our chance 
of imprisonment, it seems to me, is pretty good 
— or pretty bad, rather.” 

Our case certainly did look serious when 
Percy thus laid it out for my inspection. 

“ As far as I see,” said I, there is nothing 
left but to run away. I don’t v)ant to run 
away, you may be sure, but I don’t want to be 
hung or transported or put in jail either. I 
wish my father and mother were here, so that 
we might ask them what we ought to do.” 

It happened that niy parents had that even- 
ing driven off to dine and sleep fifteen miles 
away, and Percy’s father being too far off for 
us to communicate with him, we were thus de- 
prived of our natural advisers. It did not oc- 
cur to either of us to lay the matter before old 
Moseley, for the head-masters of English schools, 
at that time at least, seemed to their younger 


38 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


pupils to stand upon too high and unapproach- 
able an eminence to be regarded by them as 
friends and counsellors. 

1 11 tell 3 ^ou what we must do,” said Percy, 
after sitting in profound thought for the space 
of five minutes — “and considering that we got 
into this scrape by no fault of our own, I be- 
lieve our parents won’t blame us for doing it. 
We ’ll run off down to Southampton — we can 
get there before morning — and slip on board a 
steamer going over to France. From there I ’ll 
write to my father and tell him all about it, and 
he will arrange the matter somehow ; or, if it is 
not to be arranged, he will tell us wTat to do 
next. What do you say ? ” 

“ 1 think it is a first-rate idea, and I vote we 
do it.” 

Doubtless we were a foolish pair of youngsters 
to decide upon such a course, but I think, con- 
sidering the circumstances, it is not so much to be 
wondered at that we should run away and con- 
ceal ourselves for a time until we should find 
out whether we were to be hanged, drawn, and 
quartered, or otherwise made to suffer, for an 
offence we had never intended to commit. 

“ But, Percy,” said I, as the thought occurred 
to me, “what about those fellows up at the 


39 


The Flight 

castle ? We can’t leave them to starve to death.” 

After some consideration Percy thought of a 
plan. 

See here,” said he. You write out a state- 
ment of the whole matter and leave it on your 
dressing-table. Say how Bates got us into this 
mess, and where he is now. I ’ll do the same. 
I’ll address it to old Moseley and ask him to 
send it on to my father. How will that do? ” 

‘‘ That will do. And then your father, and 
mine too, will know that we are all right, and 
that we have n’t run away without a pretty 
good reason.” 

How much money have you ? ” asked Percy, 
as we rose from our conference. 

There are four pounds in my savings-box,” 
I replied. 

Well, bring it all,” said he. “I have three 
pounds, besides twenty-five dollars my aunt 
gave me. Come and throw a stone at my win- 
dow at eleven and I ’ll be ready. We must 
wait till everybody is asleep.” 

Percy then hurried off to the schoolhouse, 
and at five minutes past eleven that night, as I 
have already told, we were running down the 
white chalk road on our way to Southampton, 
twenty-five miles distant. 



CHAPTER III 


A FALSE START 



‘HERE was a tinge of red in the eastern sky 


^ when two very weary and very hungry 
boys came tramping into Southampton and 
made their way down to the docks. Among 
the innumerable vessels lying side by side they 
presently came to one which presented an ap- 
pearance of greater bustle than the others ; the 
steam was roaring from the funnels, cases and 
boxes were being lowei’ed into the hold amid 
much shouting and running up and down of 
sailors, and everything betokened a speedy 
departure. 

Of a man standing on the wharf, his hands in 
his pockets and a pipe in the corner of his 
mouth, one of the boys inquired whither this 
vessel was bound. 

D’n’-know,” grunted the man. “ Dieppe, 
maybe, or St. Malo.” 


40 


A False Start 


41 


When does she sail ? ” asked the boy again. 

“ High tide ; ’bout an hour.” 

Thank you,” said Percy, who had asked the 
questions ; and then, turning to me, he sug- 
gested that we had time to go and get some 
breakfast. 

In a greasy little den by the waterside we 
managed to make a very hearty meal, for we 
were too hungry to be particular, and in half an 
hour we sallied forth again much refreshed. 
Somewhat to our consternation, as we issued 
from the house we ran plump into the arms of 
a big policeman, who eyed us, as we thought, 
with suspicious keenness, but as he did not ad- 
dress us we walked back to the vessel, to which 
a gang-plank had now been run out. 

There did not appear to be many passengers 
going aboard, but among them we noticed a 
large family, father and mother, three daughters, 
and a son, awaiting their turn, and joining our- 
selves to this party we walked on board with 
them, apparently without exciting any suspicion. 
If any of the officers thought anything about it 
at all, they probably supposed we were coming 
to see the rest of the family off. 

We went at once down to the saloon, and 
walking up a long passage toward the stern, 


42 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


tapped at the door of one of the state-rooms. 
There was no answer, so, opening the door, we 
peeped in. 

^‘This will do, Tom,” whispered my compan- 
ion. See ; the beds are not made up ; this 
cabin is not taken.” 

We slipped in, shut the door, and crawled 
beneath the berths on either side. For the 
time, at any rate, we were safe. 

During the long walk of the night before we 
had discussed a plan of action, and had decided 
that, instead of paying for our passage before 
starting, we would get on board and hide, if 
possible, in order to avoid unpleasant explana- 
tions until it should be too late to send us back ; 
in which design we had succeeded more easily 
than we had ventured to hope. 

In about half an hour we heard a bell ring, 
somebody called out, Any more for the 
shore?” and not long afterwards, with a sud- 
denness which made us jump, there came, just 
under our heads apparently, a chug — chug — 
chug ! and a splashing of water which notified 
us plainly enough that we had started. Pre- 
sently, from the slight motion of the vessel, we 
guessed that we were clear of the docks and 
were steaming down between the Isle of Wight 


A False Start 


43 


and the mainland. This motion continued for 
a long time, and then the boat suddenly heeled 
over and rolled back with a creaking of timbers 
and a slamming of doors which proclaimed the 
fact that we had rounded the Needles and were 
out in the English Channel. 

“ Percy,” I whispered, I wonder what they 
are doing at home now. They Ve found your 
sheets hanging out of the window long before 
this.” 

^‘Yes. And, Tom, I w’onder if Bates has 
ventured to climb down the chimney yet.” 

Not he,” I replied. The keepers might, 
but Bates won’t.” 

We lay silent again, and presently, worn out 
by our long night’s tramp, and by the exertions 
and excitement of the day before, we fell asleep. 
It was towards evening when the ringing of the 
dinner-bell woke us up. Thinking it was the 
calling-bell at school, Percy started up and was 
at once brought to a sense of his present situa- 
tion by cracking the back of his head sharply 
against the bottom of the berth. Seeing that I 
was moving he whispered across to me : 

Tom, shall we go out now? We must be 
nearly across. How long does it take to get 
over to France ? Do you know ? ” 


44 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


We had both crawled from our hiding-places, 
and were enjoying a hearty stretch ; I had 
opened my mouth to reply to Percy’s question, 
when we heard footsteps in the passage, and a 
voice saying, Number four. Lower berth.” 

^^This is number four, Percy,” I whispered, 
hastily. Shall we hide ? ” 

“ No,” said he, stoutly, and All right,” said I ; 
and standing side by side we looked expectantly 
and with something of a tremor at the door. 

The door opened, and a large man in a gold- 
laced hat put one foot inside the cabin and 
stopped, regarding us with wide-opened eyes. 
Behind him we saw a steward carrying an arm- 
ful of bedding. 

“Well, young gentlemen,” said the gold-laced 
man, whom we took to be the Captain ; “ where 
did you spring from ? ” 

“We came on board this morning, sir,” said 
Percy, “and we ’ve been asleep ever since.” 
Then, seeing that the man looked serious, he 
hastily added, “We ai'e ready to pay for our 
passage, sir.” 

“ And, if you please, sir,” I asked, “ shall we 
be able to get something to eat before we land ? ” 
For I was ravenously hungry. 

At this the big man broke into a big laugh. 


A False Start 


45 


“Well, yes,” said he. “You will be more than 
hungry if you don’t. Where do you suppose 
you are going to ? ” 

“ F^’ance,” we both answered together. 

At this the big man’s countenance fell again. 
Telling the attending Steward to leave the 
bedding, he shut the door, and said : 

“Boys, I ’m afraid you have made some 
grievous mistake. This boat is not going to 
France. We are bound for New Orleans.” 

It was our turn to look grave. Instead of a 
passage of six or eight hours, we were in for a 
sea-voyage of two or three weeks. Added to 
this, if we should give up all our money it would 
hardly suffice to pay our way, and moreover we 
should on landing be stranded, penniless, in a 
strange city in what was, to me at least, a foreign 
land. The situation was decidedly serious. 

“How did you ever come to make such a 
mistake ? ” our interlocutor went on. “ And 
why did n’t you take a ticket before coming on 
board ? A pretty mess you ’ve made of it.” 

“I’ll tell you the truth, sir,” replied Percy, 
with a glance at me which I answered with a 
nod. “We ran away from school last night 
and intended to go over to France for a time; 
but we were afraid to offer to pay our passage 


46 The Treasure of Mushroom Hock 


beforehand lest you should refuse to take us; 
so we slipped on board and hid in this cabin.” 
“ Well, well ! You have certainly made a 

mess of it. I must go and tell the Captain ” 

‘^The Captain ! We thought you were the 
Captain.” 

No ; I ’m the Purser. How much money 
have you, by the way ? ” 

Seven pounds, sir, and twenty-five dollars.” 
“ Hm ! Sixty dollars. Not much more than 
enough to pay your passage by steerage. And 
then you will be left paupers in New Orleans. 
Hm ! I must go and talk to the Captain.” 

If you please, sir,” said Percy, can’t we 
earn our passage somehow? We are both 
strong, and we ’ll do anything.” 

I ’ll see what can be done. Meanwhile you 
must have something to eat. Come with me.” 

The Purser led us to the Steward’s pantry, 
and there left us busily and satisfactorily en- 
gaged in demolishing a dish of cold ham and a 
pile of bread and butter. 

Percy,” said I, as soon as we were left to 
ourselves, “ we ’ve got into a pretty hobble. 
How are we going to get out of it ? ” 

“ I don’t know how we are going to get out 
of it,” replied my companion. “ Unless we 


A False Start 


47 


should meet another ship and the Captain 
should send us back we shall have to go on to 
New Orleans. As far as we are concerned I 
don’t care ; it is thinking of the folks at home 
that bothers me. They won’t know what has 
become of us, and there will be no means of 
letting them know for three weeks, perhaps. 
If there was any way of getting back I ’d go 
back, and chance being hung, rather than let 
them worry over us such a long time.” 

So would I,” was my response. It would 
be quite a pleasure to meet a policeman if he 
w^ould guarantee to send a message home to 
say we were all right.” 

Though we were, perhaps, rather a harum- 
scarum pair of youngsters, we were not alto- 
gether graceless. We were very sincerely 
troubled about this matter. As it happened, 
however, our trouble was superfluous. Though 
we were not made aware of the fact until long 
afterwards, it may be well to say at once that 
our parents had already found out where we 
were, and, knowing that we were well capable 
of taking care of ourselves, so far from being 
overwhelmed with anxiety on our account, they 
were almost disposed to chuckle over the pre- 
dicament in which they guessed we must be. 


48 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


If only we could have known this, what a 
difference it would have made to our comfort ! 

But two healthy boys cannot long remain in 
a doleful frame of mind, and under the genial 
influence of the cold ham we presently began to 
brighten up. 

“ That Purser is a jolly old buffer,” said I ; “ I 
only hope the Captain is half as good a fellow. 
Suppose they let us work our passage, what 
shall we do when we get to New Orleans ?” 

“I've been thinking about that,” replied 
Percy. “ First of all, as soon as ever we set 
foot on shore, we must telegraph home, if it 
takes every cent we possess. Then, I propose 
that we take one of the big river-steamers up 
to St. Louis, — working our passage, if they ’ll 
let us, — and from there turn eastward, ride as 
far as our money will take us, and walk the 
rest of the way to Philadelphia. I have lots of 
relations in Philadelphia, and they will help us. 
What do you think ? ” 

I readily acquiesced in Percy’s plan ; as, in- 
deed, I should have done in any other he might 
have proposed. It was not likely that I should 
be able to contribute any valuable suggestions 
on the subject, for my knowledge of American 
geography and American distances was quite 


A False Start 


49 


microscopic in its littleness. Of St. Louis I had 
never heard before, while as to the other two 
cities, I knew that one was somewhere in the 
South and the other somewhere in the East, 
and that was all. How far apart they might 
be I had no idea. 

It was well we settled upon a plan of action 
while we had the chance, for, as it happened, 
we were destined to have few opportunities of 
conversing during the rest of the voyage. One 
of the stewards presently came in with a mes- 
sage from the Purser, to say that the Captain 
could not see" us until next day, and that he — 
the Steward — would find us a bed. Accord- 
ingly, after going on deck in the forward part 
of the ship to get a breath of fresh air for half 
an hour, we went to bed and slept soundly 
until next morning. 

Soon after breakfast, our friend (as we had 
come to regard him) the Purser came and told 
us to follow him to the Captain’s cabin. It 
was with a good deal of apprehension that we 
entered the sanctum of the monarch of this 
little floatiug kingdom, but as there was nothing 
else to be done we plucked up such courage as 
was left to us and stepped over the threshold. 

The Captain was a grey-haired, clean-shaven 


50 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


little man, with a keen eye and a quick man- 
ner. He looked up as we came in. 

^‘Oh, these are your stowaways, are they, 
Mr. Purser ? ” said he. “ So you have run away 
from school, have you, you young scamps ? Ho 
you know I could put you in irons and take you 
back to Southampton if I chose ? I’m not sure 
but that I ought to do it. How am I to know 
that you are not running away from the law?” 

At this accidental shot Percy and I felt very 
uncomfortable, perceiving which, and suppos- 
ing that he had hurt our feelings, the Captain 
changed his tone. 

^‘Well, well,” said he, good-naturedly, “I 
don’t think that; your appearance is in your 
favour; you look like an honest pair of young- 
sters. So you want to work your passage, do 
you ? Is either of you any good at figures ? ” 

“Yes, sir,” said I, brightening up in a mo- 
ment, and pointing with my thumb at Percy. 
“ Goodall, here, is a regular nailer.” 

“ Oh, Goodall is a regular nailer, is he ? ” re- 
peated the Captain, relaxing into a smile. 
“ Well, Mr. Purser, suppose you take this nailer 
and set him to work in your office. Keep him 
tight at it; make him earn his passage. And 
you, you great hobbledehoy,” — to me, — “ what 


A False Start 


51 


can you do? Your hands are more use to you 
than your head, I ’ll wagei’.” 

I suppose my wits were somewhat confused 
l>y this sudden address ; at any rate, after a mo- 
ment’s consideration, I commenced the enumera- 
tion of my capabilities by saying thoughtfully : 

“Well, sir, I’m a pretty good shot with a 
bow and arrow ” — at which absurd reply both 
the Captain and the Purser burst into peals of 
laughter. 

“ How old are you, boy ? ” asked the former 
as soon as he had recovered his powers of 
speech. 

“ Sixteen, sir.” 

“ Sixteen ! I thought you were eighteen. 
Are you willing to shovel coal for a living for 
the next two weeks ? ” 

“ Yes, sir,” said I, eagerly. 

“Very well, then. The Chief Engineer tells 
me, Mr. Purser, that one of his firemen is laid 
up with a sprained wiist; so find this boy a 
suit of overalls if you can and turn him loose in 
the boiler-room. It is a good hot job, and it 
will take off some of his fiesh ; he ’s a deal too 
fat. Now, get along with you, you young 
scamps, and mind you behave yourselves.” 

“Well, boys,” said the Purser, after we had 


52 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

retired, “you have come out of that scrape 
pretty well.” 

“ Thanks to you, sir, I expect,” said Percy. 

“I put in a good word for you, 1 admit,” 
replied our big friend. “I was pleased with 
the way you spoke up last night. Now I must 
see to putting you to work. Come along.” 

As a result of the Purser’s arrangements 
Percy and I were separated; he being pretty 
closely confined by his duties in the Purser’s 
oflSce, while I, dressed up in a canvas suit, was 
sent down into the black depths of the ship, to 
shovel coal. 

It would be needless repetition to go into all 
the details of our voyage, every day being but a 
counterpart of the day before. It is enough to 
say that when, after a smooth and uneventful 
passage, the engines at last stopped, and I was 
at liberty to go on deck, I found myself looking 
out over a great city, — the metropolis of the 
Southern States. 

Before we went ashore I was told that the 
Captain had sent for me to his cabin, and as 
soon as I had washed and changed my canvas 
suit for my own clothes I hastened to obey the 
message. I was about to knock at the door 
when I saw Percy coming towards me, and 


A False Start 


53 


guessing that he had received a similar com- 
mand I waited for him. 

As I stood there close by the door I heard 
the Captain’s voice addressing someone inside. 
He seemed to be much amused by something 
his companion had just been telling him, for he 
was laughing heartily. 

“ Capital idea ! ” he exclaimed. “ It will do 
them all the good in the world. You may re- 
port from me that they have behaved very well, 
and that in my opinion they are quite capable 
of taking care of themselves.” 

At this moment Percy joined me, when we at 
once knocked at the door and stepped into the 
cabin. The individual to whom the Captain 
had been talking, a small, sharp-faced man in a 
check suit, rose as we entered, and taking no 
notice of us apparently, thanked the Captain for 
his information and went out. 

“Well, boys,” said the Captain, “I sent for 
you to tell you that I have had a satisfactory 
report of both of you, and to give you this ” — 
handing us ten dollars each ; “I’m told you 
have earned it. Now let me give you some- 
thing else — a piece of advice. Telegraph to 
your friends for the money and turn right round 
and go home again. Good-bye.” 


54 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


‘‘ Good-bye, sir ; and thank you,” said Percy 
and I together, glad to be thus dismissed with- 
out the cross-questioning to which we had feared 
we might be subjected. Having then taken 
leave of our good friend the Purser, we straight- 
way went ashore. 

Pausing only for a few minutes to look down 
upon the city, and to wonder how’ the inhabit- 
ants ever dared to go to bed with that tre- 
mendous river only awaiting an opportunity, 
apparently, to rush in and drown them all be- 
fore morning, we set oif in search of a telegraph- 
office, whence we sent a brief message home, 
and having also mailed a long letter which 
Percy had written during the passage out, we 
retraced our steps to the river-side. 

As we left the post-office we noticed the 
sharp-faced man whom we had seen in the Cap- 
tain’s cabin. He w^as talking to a policeman, 
who, as we passed, turned his eyes in our direc- 
tion and laughed at something the small man 
said. The sound of the laugh was a great re- 
lief to us. If we were the objects of it, well 
and good. The policeman might laugh at us 
as much as he liked, provided he did not inter- 
fere with us. To tell the truth, we had been 
''Omewhat apprehensive lest we might on land- 


A False Start 


55 


ing be snapped up by the authorities and shipped 
off to England, willy-nilly. 

Among the many steamboats of extraordinary 
shape — as they seemed to me — ^lying along the 
levee we soon found one about to start up the 
river, and stepping on board we addressed our- 
selves to one who appeared to be in authority — 
an authority he maintained, seemingly, by the 
use of a copious and needless flow of profane 
language. 

Well, what do you want ? ” asked this per- 
sonage, turning upon us as though he had been 
a dog, and we had come to steal his bone. 

We stated our desires and our qualifications, 
with the result that we both secured places as 
roustabouts ” ; and thoroughly disgusted were 
we both with our tasks long before we reached 
St. Louis. It was not so much the nature of 
the work to which we objected, nor was it to 
the society of the negroes and poor- whites with 
whom w^e were herded ; our main objection was 
to the stream of foul language for ever being 
poured upon us by ‘‘ his profanic majesty,” as 
Percy called him, the Mate. It required all our 
resolution not to desert half-a-dozen times on 
the way up, but being determined to stick to 
our plan, if possible, we managed to hold on 


56 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

until, at last, the ordeal was over, and we found 
ourselves one day walking, free and untram- 
melled, in the streets of St. Louis. 

The first thing we did on landing was to en- 
ter a cheap clothing store and purchase some 
underclothes — a much-needed addition to our 
wardrobe. As we were going out again we 
brushed past a man who was trying on a new 
necktie before a looking-glass, and happening to 
look into the glass, I saw, rather to my surprise, 
that it was the small, sharp-faced man whom 
we had twice seen in New Orleans. It struck 
me as being an odd coincidence, but nothing 
more, and I did not even mention it to Percy. 

Betaking ourselves next to a little eating- 
house, we ordered some dinner, and while wait- 
ing for it Percy amused himself and me by 
reading items from the old newspaper in which 
our clothes were wrapped. Presently he gave 
a subdued whistle, and after glancing around 
the room to see if anyone was observing us, he 
leaned across the table and said, softly : 

“Tom, here’s something about us. Listen. 
^ The police of Philadelphia have been requested 
by the Chief-Constable of Southampton, Eng- 
land, to look out for two runaway boys. The 
names of the boys are Per ’ — there ’s a piece 


A False Start 


57 


torn out here, but lower down it goes on — 
^has many relatives in Philadelphia, and it is 
expected they will probably make for that 
city.’”. 

This was a dreadful shock to us. Here was 
our line of retreat cut off, so to say. The men- 
tion of the Chief-Constable of Southampton 
fully convinced us that the paragraph emanated 
from Sir Anthony, whose resentment at having 
his pheasants shot and his keepers entrapped 
we pictured to ourselves in lively colours. Doubt- 
less, we thought, the police of Philadelphia 
were all on the lookout, and should we venture 
wdthin the limits of that city we should in- 
stantly be pounced upon by them and sent 
back across the water to be delivered into the 
clutches of the vengeful Sir Anthony. What 
were we to do ? 

We ate our dinner in silence and perturbation 
of spirit, and, still undecided as to our future 
course, we were about to rise and go out, when 
Percy, with a thump upon the table, suddenly 
exclaimed : 

I know what we ’ll do, Tom.” 

What ? ” I asked. 

Instead of going east, we ’ll go west. We ’ll 
go to Ogden in Utah.” 


58 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


“ Where ’s Ogdenenutah ? ” said I, thinking 
it was all one word. 

In the Rocky Mountains,” 

Is it ? That will suit me. I ’ve always 
wanted to see the Rocky Mountains. But why 
should we go to that place with the long name 
in particular ? ” 

“ Because I have an uncle and a cousin living 
in a mining town called Golconda, not far from 
there. I have not seen them since I was a little 
bit of a boy, but I have heard my father talk 
of them, and I am sure they will be just the 
ones to tell us what we ought to do.” 

All right,” said I. “ Let us go to Ogdenen- 
utah. How are we to get there ? ” 

“ Why, I think we had better go part way 
by train and part way on foot. It won’t do to 
spend all our money on railway tickets, because 
there ’s no knowing what may turn up. We 
will go by train as far as we think we can af- 
ford to go, and walk the rest of the way to 
Ogden — Ogden in the Territory of Utah, you 
old stupid ! ” 

Very well,” said I, nodding my head in ap- 
proval. We’ll go to Ogden in the Territory 
of Utah. How far do you suppose we shall 
have to walk ? ” 


A False Start 


59 


can’t say for certain, of course, until. I see 
how far our money will take us, but five hun- 
dred miles perhaps, — possibly more.” 

‘‘ Phew ! ” I whistled. “ That is something like 
a walk. Never mind. We ’ll do it. We ’ll go 
to the Territory of Ogden in Utah if we have 
to hop.” 




CHAPTER IV 


THE MAH WITH THE SQUEAKY VOICE 

ITTLE did we realise the magnitude of 



the task we were undertaking, when, 
having first written home to explain our rea- 
sons for this sudden change of plan, we betook 
ourselves to the railroad station and started, 
with fairly clear consciences, on our westward 
course. In due time we descended from the 
train at a little station which appeared to have 
been set down in the midst of nowhere, whence, 
with all the confidence of youth and ignorance, 
we set forth upon our tremendous tramp across 
the plains. 

For a whole month thereafter we marched 
steadily and perseveringly along the endless 
railroad track ; and never, I firmly believe, were 
two boys so utterly and completely tired as 
were we by the end of that time. 

If our sea-voyage had been monotonous^ this 


6o 


The Man with the Squeaky Voice 6i 


voyage across the solid sea of the rolling plains 
was even more so. Day after day the same 
green circle of hills surrounded us ; every little 
town we passed was as like the last as one pea is 
like another ; such a perpetual sameness in the 
landscape was there that we might have thought 
we were walking in a circle, but for the sun, 
which every morning rose behind us, and every 
evening shone in our faces. 

The only break in the monotony of our weari- 
some task was an incident which occurred per- 
haps half-a-dozen times ; an incident with which 
we could very well have dispensed, for the 
reason that by no means could we make head 
or tail to it. 

Every now and then, as we came plodding 
along the track, each with a stick in his hand 
and a rolled-up blanket over his shoulder, we 
would, on passing through a station, find the 
agent standing on the platform, watching our 
approach, and grinning as though he saw some- 
thing in our appearance that was irresistibly 
amusing. Sometimes he would merely eye us 
as we went by ; at other times he would greet 
us in some such fashion as this : 

Well, boys ; glad to see you. Had a long- 
ish walk, have n’t you ? Getting pretty tired ? 


62 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


Well, don’t let me detain you; you’ve got a 
tidy bit to walk yet. Good-bye.” 

Then, laughing to himself, he would go back 
to his clicking telegraph instrument, while we 
walked on, wondering how he came to make so 
good a guess concerning us and our affairs. It 
really seemed as though these men must have 
been expecting us, had such a thing been possi- 
ble. It was very puzzling ; we were quite at a 
loss to account for their extraordinary behaviour. 

On one of these occasions I caught a glimpse 
through the window of the waiting-room of a 
face which somehow seemed familiar. For a 
moment I thought it was the man whom we 
had seen in the Captain’s cabin at New Orleans, 
but as such a thing appeared to be out of the 
question I dismissed the idea without a second 
thought. 

In the early part of our walk we were fortun- 
ate in the matter of finding a lodging for the 
night. Our practice was, when the sun began 
to get low, to look out for a farmhouse of 
decent appearance, and having first washed off 
the dust of travel and made ourselves as pre- 
sentable as possible, to apply for leave to sleep 
in the barn ; a permission which was nearly 
always accorded. 


The Man with the Squeaky Voice 63 

But by the time we had come somewhere to- 
wards the middle of Nebraska this condition of 
affairs had changed. It is true that we were 
still kindly received at the farmhouses, but 
the farmhouses were more widely scattered, 
and the farther we advanced the less frequent 
they became. In consequence, we had now 
and then been benighted on the prairie ; on 
which occasions, especially if it happened to be 
a windy or a rainy night, we found that the 
pleasure of camping-out lay more in the imagin- 
ation than the reality. 

The farther we went, too, the more tired we 
grew. It seemed almost impossible sometimes 
to summon up energy enough to go on when 
the rising sun warned us that it was time to 
start on another day’s tramp. In fact, we were 
beginning to entertain uncomfortable suspicions 
that we had undertaken more than we could 
accomplish, when there occurred an incident 
which relieved us of all further anxiety on that 
score. 

We had been toiling all day against a strong 
west wind, the sun had gone down an hour ago, 
we were out on the wide, open plain, with never 
a house in sight, and, thoroughly weaiy, we had 
decided to camp in the first sheltered spot we 


64 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


could find, when we came upon a small trestle- 
bridge spanning a narrow, but deep, gully. 
Across this bridge we had walked in order to 
get under the lee of the creek-bank, when, look- 
ing back, we saw on the side we had just left a 
little tumble-down cabin. We at once retraced 
our steps, and scrambling down the side of the 
gully, we approached the building. It was evi- 
dently very old. The door was gone ; the mud 
chinking had all fallen out ; while, of two bunks 
built against the end wall, one above the other, 
the upper one only was sound. 

Poor as this shelter was, it was better than 
none, and we at once decided to take up our 
quarters there for the night. We were too tired 
to go and hunt for fire-wood in the dark, so, un- 
wrapping from a greasy newspaper some slices 
of cooked ham which we had purchased that 
morning, we made a chilly and comfortless meal, 
and then, having re- wrapped and re-pocketed the 
remnants of the ham, we climbed into the crazy 
upper bunk, rolled ourselves in our blankets, 
and were soon sound asleep, in spite of the in- 
sinuating draughts, and the trembling of the 
rickety old structure before the assaults of the 
blustering wind. 

How long we had slept we did not know. 


The Man with the Squeaky Voice 65 

when we were awakened by the sudden entrance 
into the cabin of several men, who, unconscious 
that there were any listeners, began talking to- 
gether in loud, rough voices. With an instinct- 
ive feeling that it would be better for us to 
remain undiscovered, Percy and I lay silent ; 
wondering what could have brought these men 
here at this time of night, and why they should 
carry on their conversation in the dark. We 
very soon found out. 

‘^What time does she come along?” asked 
one of the men. 

She ’s due at the water-tank in an hour. 
That’ll give us plenty of time. Now, which 
are we going to do — signal her, and go through 
the mail and express cars and the passengers, or 
pull up a rail and let her take a header through 
the trestle?” 

“ Pull up a rail,” growled a third voice — and 
a very remarkable voice it was too. The man 
began his remarks in the deepest bass, but after 
two or three words his voice broke and went off 
into a thin, treble pipe. It was a voice, once 
heard, never to be forgotten. 

^^Pull up a rail,” said the man. “That ’s the 
surest way, by long odds. We’ll pull out 

the spikes and take off the fish-plates and tilt 
5 


66 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


the rail a bit, and she ’ll jump the track sure. 
Then two of us ’ll go through the express car 
while the other two goes through the passengers 
— them as is n’t killed.” 

At the disclosure of this villainous scheme 
Percy and I quaked with fear. Our bunk was 
not so high but that a tall man could over- 
look it, and should one of them strike a match 
for any purpose he could hardly fail to discover 
us, and discovery, we had little doubt, would 
mean death ; for that they should feel any com- 
punction at putting two witnesses out of the 
way was not to be expected of these ineffable 
rascals, who, for the sake of a few dollars, were 
planning in cold blood the murder of an un- 
known number of innocent people. 

“ That ’s the w^ay we ’ll fix it,” continued he 
of the squeaky voice, clapping his hand upon 
the edge of the bunk close to my face, and 
making me start so that my heart seemed to go 
off like an alarm-clock. “ And, see here, boys ; 
after we ’ve tilted one rail, we may ’s well put 
in the rest of the time pulling out the spikes all 
along the lower side of the trestle, so ’s to make 
a sure job of it. While three of us is doing 
that, one can keep watch on the hill for the 
headlight, ’cause we won’t be able to hear her 


The Man with the Squeaky Voice 67 

coming up against this wind, and when he gives 
the word we ’ll hustle back to this old shanty.” 

That ’s a good scheme. Come on. Who ’s 
got them tools ? ” 

^^Me.” 

Bring ’em along, then, and let ’s get to work.” 

To our infinite relief the four villains filed 
out of the cabin, and the sound of their retreat- 
ing footsteps was quickly lost in the whistling 
of the wind. After lying quite still for a mo- 
ment I ventured to move enough to enable me 
to peep through one of the chinks in the wall. 
In the dim light — for, though there was a full 
moon, the sky was obscured by a thin layer of 
cloud — I could see the men walking one behind 
the other down towards the bridge. As soon 
as they disappeared from sight I whispered to 
Percy to turn out, and the next moment we 
were through the doorway and hurrying off up- 
stream. 

^^Tom,” Percy hastily exclaimed, after we 
had gone a hundred yards, ^^we must climb 
over the hill and get back to the track below 
the bridge and signal that train.” 

Yes,” I responded. “But first we have to 
find a place where we can climb up this cliff ; 
it is too steep here.” 


68 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


We consumed ten or fifteen minutes of pre- 
cious time searching for an available spot, but 
at last we found a place where the bluJff had 
broken away, and clambering quickly to the 
top, we hurried over the hill and down to the 
railroad, where we set off down-wind as fast 
as we could walk — being afraid to run in the 
dark lest we should break our legs by tumbling 
through a cattle-guard. 

We had gone about half a mile, perhaps, 
when, looking back, we saw, dimly outlined 
against the luminous grey sky, the figure of the 
watcher on the hill. Though it was unlikely 
that he should be able to see us, we were afraid 
to risk it, and we therefore stepped from the 
track and lay down on the lower side of the 
embankment, whence we could keep a lookout 
down the line, and also maintain a watch upon 
the watcher. 

“ How are we going to signal the train, Tom ? ” 
asked Percy. “We have no lantern, and we 
have n’t time to collect material to build a fire 
on the track ; and if we did so that fellow back 
there would see it, of course, and the whole 
rascally gang would be after us directly. And 
besides that the train might be late and our 
fire might burn out before it got here.” 


The Man with the Squeaky Voice 69 

“ The only way I see,” I replied, “ is to use 
the newspaper that the ham is wrapped up in. 
We must wait till the train is pretty near and 
then light the paper, trusting to its being seen 
before it burns out.” 

That ’s a good idea,” Percy responded, but 
I think I know a better way still. I will crawl 
down the bank here and cut a willow stick ; we 
will split the end of it and insert the newspaper, 
ham and all, into the cleft, and then we shall 
have a torch which will last five or ten minutes.” 

In accordance with Percy’s idea we soon had 
our torch prepared, and again we lay still, wait- 
ing. Some forty slow minutes dragged along, 
when we thought we could detect a tremor in 
the rails close to our heads. We were right, 
for directly afterwards the headlight of the 
engine appeared coming round the bend. I 
glanced back at the watchman ; he was still at 
his post, having not yet seen the light on ac- 
count of the curve in the road. A moment 
later, however, the increase in the size of the head- 
light showed that the train had turned the 
corner, and at the same instant I saw the man 
on the hill turn and run. As he disappeared 
from view I called to Percy to light up, and 
Percy, who was holding six matches in readi- 


70 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


ness, struck them all at once, and sheltering the 
flame from the wind as best he could, applied 
it to the paper. The greasy material flared up 
in an instant, and seizing the stick I sprang 
into the middle of the track and waved the 
light to and fro in front of me. 

Thanks to the frying ham — and never was a 
slice of ham put to a better use — our improvised 
torch made a very large blaze, and presently, 
to our great satisfaction, we heard faintly against 
the wind the toot-toot of the whistle, showing 
that our signal was observed. We at once 
walked quickly towards the train, and just as 
our torch fell to pieces we saw two men coming 
the track, — the conductor and one of the 
brakemen. 

“Well, boys,” said the former, as he held up 
his lantern to look at us, “ what did you signal 
us for ? Bridge gone ? ” 

“ Train- wreckers,” said Percy. “They’ve 
pulled up a rail on the trestle.” 

The conductor whistled. “How did you 
come to know of it ? ” he asked. 

“We heard them laying their plans about an 
hour ago, and so we hurried down the track to 
stop you.” 

“ How many of them ? ” asked the brakeman. 



“I WAVED THE LIGHT 


TO AND FRO IN FRONT OF ME.” 








The Man with the Squeaky Voice 71 


Four. They are waiting for you in a 
little cabin near the bridge.” 

The two men nodded to each other ; they 
evidently knew the place; and then the con- 
ductor, telling us to follow him, led the way 
back to the train. At the engine he stopped, 
and addressing the engineer, said : 

“ George, these boys report a gang of train- 
wreckers. They Ve pulled up a rail on the 
trestle. They are waiting in that old cabin up 
the gully, and I ’m going into the smoker to see 
if I can’t arrange a little surprise-party for 
them. When I give the signal, you go ahead 
slowly.” 

“ All right,” replied the engineer. And, say, 
Barclay, see if you can borrow a gun for me ; 
I ’d like to take a hand in this little expedition 
of yours myself.” 

The smoking-car was pretty full of passengers, 
most of them big, brown-faced fellows, miners 
and stockmen on their way to the mountains. 
They were lying about on the seats in all sorts 
of contorted positions, trying to get a little 
sleep, but no sooner had the conductor in a loud 
voice reported our story than the scene changed 
as if by magic. Each one of these peaceful 
citizens appeared to have a big revolver con- 


72 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


cealed somewhere within easy reach, and about 
twenty of them instantly volunteered to take a 
share in the proposed surprise-party. The sig- 
nal, therefoi'e, being given, the train moved on 
towards the bridge. In about five minutes it 
stopped again, and the conductor, with an extra 
revolver in his hand, stepped from the car, fol- 
lowed by his volunteer posse ; we boys wisely 
remaining behind. 

For half an hour the trainmen and all the 
other occupants of the car stood around the 
panting engine whispering together and waiting 
for a shot. No shot came, however, and pre- 
sently we saw the party coming clambering up 
again from the gully. We looked in vain for 
prisoners. They were returning empty-handed. 
Without doubt the robbers had taken alarm 
and fled, for the posse had found no sign of 
them about the cabin save the marks of their 
boots in the dust, and an odour of bad tobacco. 

The next thing to be done was to examine 
the bridge, where a brief inspection showed that 
the would-be wreckers had performed their 
task with much thoroughness ; so, as the train 
carried none of the tools and materials necessary 
for making repairs, the conductor, accompanied 
by six of the armed passengers, set off to bring 


The Man with the Squeaky Voice 73 

assistance from the nearest section-house two 
miles farther up the line. 

During the interval of waiting that ensued, 
Percy and I were the objects of general inter- 
est. We were made to tell our story with 
every detail ; eliciting great applause when we 
described how we had sacrificed our next morn- 
ing’s breakfast in order to make a torch. All 
the passengers who were awake, and all the 
train-crew besides, came up to shake hands 
with us and thank us, and to say all sorts of 
complimentary things ; in fact it was quite an 
ovation, which lasted until the conductor had re- 
turned with the section-hands and the damaged 
bridge had been made safe again. 

The train was ready to proceed. Before it 
did so, however, we asked the conductor if he 
would not allow us to ride with him for an 
hour or so, explaining that we were afraid the 
wreckers might come back, in which case it 
might go hard with us; for though it was un- 
likely that they were aware of our existence, it 
was still possible that they might have seen 
our signal, and if they should guess that it was 
we who had frustrated their plan 

At this point of our explanation the con- 
ductor broke in : 


74 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


“Let you ride!” he exclaimed. “You bet 
I ’ll let you ride. I ’ve telegraphed the Super- 
intendent from the section-station, and you shall 
ride until I get word from him what I ’m to do 
with you.” 

Accordingly, when the train moved on, we 
moved on too, and finding two unoccupied seats 
we coiled ourselves up in them, and were soon 
sound asleep. 

We had no reason to regret the sacrifice of 
our slices of ham, for when the train stopped 
at the eating-station next morning we received 
from the occupants of the smoking-car alone 
sixteen invitations to breakfast, and if we could 
have eaten them I believe we might have had 
sixty, for by this time the passengers in the 
other cars, most of whom had been unaware 
that anything unusual had happened during 
the night, had been told the story, and once 
more we were overwhelmed with thanks and 
questions and handshakings. 

We were still at breakfast when the con- 
ductor came in with a telegram in his hand ; 
it was a message from the Superintendent in- 
structing him to carry us on our journey as far 
as we wished to go, and to see that we were 
well fed all the way at the expense of the com- 


The Man with the Squeaky Voice 75 

pany ; adding, also, bis personal thanks for our 
service. 

This assurance of a free ride to Ogden, to- 
gether with the frequently expressed gratitude 
and the complimentary remarks of the passen- 
gers was a very acceptable outcome of the 
night’s adventure. There was one other conse- 
quence of the episode, however, which was les^ 
gratifying : the newspaper interviewers sought 
us out. They wanted to know all about us ; 
our names, where we came from, whither we 
were going, what we intended to do when we 
arrived there, and the why and the wherefore 
of everything. Though we avoided as much 
as possible making any explicit reply to these 
questions, we nevertheless found ourselves once 
more figuring in the newspapers, with a full de- 
scription of our personal appearance and as 
many details of our private history as these 
gentlemen could gather or guess at, — much to 
our discomfort ; for we were apprehensive lest 
somebody, seeing this report, might connect it 
with the paragraph in the Philadelphia paper, 
with the result that we might find a policeman 
waiting for us at one of the stopping-places. 

This harassing idea deprived us of much of 
the pleasure we should otherwise have taken in 


76 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


our ride; even our delight at the first sight of 
the mountains — and what a glorious sight that 
is ! — was marred by it. Seemingly, however, our 
fears were groundless; at any rate, no police- 
man had as yet put in an appearance when, by 
examining a railroad map, we saw that our 
journey w^as nearly ended. 

“We shall be in Ogden in an hour,” said 
Percy, folding up the map. 

But Percy was wrong. Instead of an hour it 
was a large part of a year before we arrived at 
Ogden ; and the course we took to get there led 
us over more than a thousand miles of mount- 
ainous country, and through scenes such as do 
not often fall within the experience of a school- 
boy. 




CHAPTER V 


jack; akd what he had to say 
T one of the little stations at which we 



stopped, a man boarded the train, and 
taking a seat opposite at once fell into convers- 
ation with us. He appeared to be familiar with 
the country round about, and, on our mentioning 
our intention of walking to Golconda, where 
Percy’s uncle and cousin lived, he told us all 
about the place and how to get to it ; informing us 
that by continuing our journey as far as Ogden 
we should only be going out of our way, for 
if we should alight instead at the next station 
we might save some fifteen miles of unnecessary 
walking. As Percy and I had no object in vis- 
iting Ogden but to leave it again as soon as 
possible, we decided to follow our adviser’s 
counsel, and stepping from the train accord- 
ingly, we set off on foot along a waggon-trail 
which led away in the direction of the hills. 


77 


78 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


Our waggon-trail led us presently into a well, 
defined road, and along this we pursued our 
way for many miles, most of the distance being 
up-hill; and hard work we found it to walk 
quickly and steadily at that unfamiliar altitude. 
At length, having ascended a long and very 
steep hill, we sat down upon some stones by 
the wayside to rest. As we sat there we ob- 
served, coming up the road at an easy canter, 
two horsemen, one of whom, as soon as he ar- 
rived at the bottom of the hill, alighted from 
his horse and proceeded to walk up on foot ; the 
other continuing to ride. 

That is a considerate fellow,” said Percy. 

It is n’t everybody who would walk up this 
hill just to please his horse.” 

“ No,” I responded, “ and the horse seems to 
know it; see how closely he walks behind ; the 
man is not holding the bridle either.” 

As the travellers came up the hill we observed 
that the one on foot was a tall young fellow 
of about twenty, brown-faced and grey-eyed, 
with a firmness about the mouth and a thought- 
fulness of expression not usual in one of his 
age. But the other ! To my great astonish- 
ment the other was the small, sharp-faced man 
of whom I have made mention on two or three 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 79 

previous occasions. How came he here ? Had 
his presence anything to do with us ? Before I 
could come to any conchision or say anything to 
Percy on the subject the pair came opposite to 
where we sat, and stopped. 

“Good-morning,” exclaimed the young fellow, 
mopping his face with his handkerchief. “ Pretty 
hot, is n’t it ? Which way are you going ; up 
or down ? ” 

“ Up,” replied Percy. “We are on our way 
to Golconda. Do you happen to know the 
place ? ” 

“Oh, yes. Very well. I live there.” 

“ Do you ? Then do you know a gentleman 
there named Harding, or his son. Jack Harding ? ” 

“ Yes,” replied the stranger. 

“ They are living there still, I suppose ? ” said 
Percy, with some anxiety ; for, though he had 
said nothing to me on the subject, he had been 
worrying himself a good deal over the idea that 
his uncle might have left the place — and what 
would become of us then ? 

Instead of replying the stranger looked hard 
at Percy for a moment, and then, breaking into 
a smile which displayed a row of strong, white 
teeth, he stretched out his hand and said : 

“ How are you, Percy ? ” 


8o The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


For an instant we stared at him in astonish- 
ment, when, all at once, it flashed upon us who 
it was. 

“ Why, it ’s Jack ! ” cried Percy. “ It is you, 
is n’t it. Jack ? ” 

‘Wes; it ’s me, all right,” replied Jack, for- 
getting his grammar for the moment. “ And 
this is your English friend, Tom Swayne, of 
course.” 

‘Wes,” said I, shaking hands with him with 
great satisfaction ; “ and uncommonly glad I am 
to see you.” 

“ But, Jack,” Percy exclaimed, as the thought 
suddenly came into his head, “ how did you 
know I had an English friend named Tom 
Swayne ? ” 

At this question Jack, by way of reply, burst 
into a merry laugh, in which, to our surprise, 
the small man on the horse joined. 

“Well, Mr. Harding,” said the latter, “I may 
as well turn round now and go back to Ogden. 
My part of the business is completed with the 
delivery of the goods. You might just give me 
a receipt for them, if you will.” 

“ All right, Jenkins,” replied Jack. And tak- 
ing a pencil and a piece of paper from his pocket 
he wrote rapidly, and then went on : “ Will 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 8i 


this do ? ‘ Received of Hiram Jenkins one Percy 
Goodall and one Tom Swayne, in good condi- 
tion. John Harding.’ ” 

That will do, sir, thank you,” the small man 
answered, laughing and pocketing the paper. 
‘^Good-bye, sir. Good-bye, young gentlemen. 
I ’m glad you ’ve got here at last. You ’ve been 
a longish time about it, though, have n’t you ? 
Good-bye.” 

With that he turned his horse and rode off 
down the hill, while Percy and I, in a state of 
the blankest bewilderment, looked alternately 
at each other and at Jack, who, standing with 
his arm across his horse’s neck, was regarding 
us with a broad and cheerful grin. 

Jack ! ” exclaimed Percy, at last. “ What ’s 
the meaning of all this ? What has that man 
to do with us ? How — why — what — what is 
the meaning of it ? ” 

At this Jack once more broke into a laugh, 
and stepping forward, clapped one hand upon 
Percy’s shoulder and the other on mine, and 
said : 

“ Percy, old fellow, and you, Tom, — I suppose 
I may call you ^ Tom ’ ? — forgive me for laugh- 
ing ; but there is such a joke against you two. 
I ’ve been expecting you any day for the past 


82 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


month. That man has been attending upon 
your footsteps ever since the morning you 
landed in New Orleans. I have letters from 
home for both of you up at the house where I 
am staying. I know all about your poaching 
scrape, and your trip across the ocean and up 
the Mississippi, and your walk across Nebraska, 
and the train- wreckers’ episode, and how the sta- 
tion-agents along the line used to joke you as 

you went by, and ” 

But how. Jack ? How ? ” we both cried, 
rendered desperate by this enumeration, which 
only increased the bewilderment of our already 
sufficiently puzzled brains. 

Come over here by the stream,” replied J ack. 

There is a nice bunch of trees. We can sit 
down in the shade, and I ’ll tell you all about 
it.” 

But to make matters intelligible I must de- 
prive Jack of the honor of telling the story 
himself, and must add to it a few details with 
which he was unacquainted. To do so I must 
go back to the night when Percy and I escaped 
— as we thought — the terrors of the law by 
running away from Moseley’s. 

It was not until the morning following our 
“ escape ” that our absence was discovered, — 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 83 

Percy’s sheet waving in the wind was the first 
intimation that something was amiss, — but as 
soon as the discovery was made there ensued 
some pretty lively bustle in the little com- 
munity. 

Bates and the keepers were rescued from the 
den,” Mr. Goodall was notified, and as soon 
as he arrived and my parents returned home 
a meeting of the elders was held at the vicar- 
age ; Sir Anthony being of the number. The 
old Baronet was half amused and half indig- 
nant that we should have supposed him to be 
so harsh and undiscriminating as to prosecute 
two thoughtless boys for an offence which they 
did not know was an offence. But, “It is just 
like boys, though,” said he. “ They never do 
stop to think.” 

The witnesses were examined, and with the 
help of Percy’s and my letters a pretty true 
understanding of the incident was arrived at. 

To dispose of one part of my story at a time, 
I may say that Bates’s share in the transaction 
showed up so unpleasantly that, as a conse- 
quence, he drove away late that evening to the 
railway-station* His school-days were over. 

Going up to London, he there had an inter- 
view with the old lawyer, his guardian, to whom 


84 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


he expressed his determination to return to school 
no more. He had had schooling enough ; he 
was nineteen years old ; he would like to see 
something of the world. 

Very well. What part of the world would 
he like to visit ? France ? Italy ? Germany ? 

No. What was the use of going to countries 
where he could not speak the language ? He 
would like to visit the United States. 

To this desire his unsympathetic old guardian, 
glad to be rid of him, gave his consent ; and so 
it came about that, while Percy and I were 
working our passage to New Orleans, Bates was 
suffering all the miseries of sea-sickness some- 
where between Liverpool and New York, we 
being, of course, as ignorant of his movements 
as he was of ours. Little could Bates have im- 
agined, when he laid his plot to oust us from 
Moseley’s, that the result of its success would 
be to lead us, all three, such a wild dance as it 
did. 

But to return to the conclave assembled in 
the vicarage parlour: my father and mother, 
Mr. Goodall, the Head-master, and Sir Anthony. 

A liberal use of the telegraph soon settled 
the question as to what had become of us. In 
reply to a message to the Chief Constable of 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 85 

Southampton, information was received that a 
policeman had that morning noticed two boys, 
calling each other Tom and Percy, looking very 
tired, dusty, and unwashed, go on board the 
Louisiana^ Captain Murchison, bound for New 
Orleans, and that they had not come ashore 
again. Further inquiry having made it quite 
certain that we were the unwashed boys re- 
ferred to, our seniors fell to discussing the 
course of action that should be adopted. Sir 
Anthony and my mother represented the two 
extremes of opinion. The former advised that 
as we had brought ourselves into this scrape we 
might very well be allowed to get ourselves 
out again, we having — he was kind enough to 
say — ^plenty of sense and plenty of courage. 
My mother, on the other hand, was for tele- 
graphing the passage-money to New Orleans to 
bring us back instantly. 

But as Mr. Goodall, being an American, was 
much more likely than anyone else to be able 
to suggest a feasible course of action, the others 
turned to him for his opinion. 

think,” said Mr. Goodall, “that we can 
make a compromise between Mrs. Swayne’s 
idea and Sir Anthony’s. It would be interest- 
ing to see how the boys would get out of their 


86 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


scrape by themselves, and this, I believe, may 
be done without running any risk of permitting 
them to get into trouble. I will tell you my 
idea, and if you agree I will see that it is car- 
ried out. 

“ The boys, presumably, have not much 
money. It is possible that they may, on land- 
ing, telegraph home for funds. If they do not, 
there is no doubt, I think, but that they will 
-try to make their way to Philadelphia — my 
home, you know — by some means or other. 
Now, this is what I propose to do : There is in 
Philadelphia a man, by name Hiram Jenkins, 
whom I have frequently employed on private 
and particular business, a thoroughly trust- 
worthy and most astute fellow. I will send 
full instructions to Jenkins to go at once to 
New Orleans, and there to await the arrival of 
the Louisiana. He shall keep a close watch 
upon the boys, follow their footsteps wherever 
they go, and, should the occasion arise, shall 
make himself known to them. Otherwise — if 
no such occasion should arise, I mean — he shall 
not interfere with them, but shall allow them 
to get out of their difficulties by their own wit. 
He shall communicate with us at frequent in- 
tervals, so that we may know all the time what 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 87 

the boys are doing and where they are. Thus, 
Mrs. Swayne, your mind will be relieved, and 
the boys will have an opportunity to show how 
much of resourcefulness there is in them. Now, 
what do you think of that ? ” 

The three gentlemen at once declared their 
approval of the plan, and after a thorough dis- 
cussion my mother, too, albeit with some re- 
luctance, gave in to their opinion. Mr. Goodall 
immediately set about making the necessary ar- 
rangements, with the result that when we 
arrived in New Orleans, there, all unsuspected 
by us, was Hiram Jenkins, waiting to act the 
part of watch-dog to us in our course across 
the continent. 

While we, in the unenviable position of roust- 
abouts, worked our toilsome way up the Missis- 
sippi, Jenkins, on the same boat, was travelling 
comfortably among the passengers. When we, 
at St. Louis, unexpectedly turned westward, Jen- 
kins rode on the same train with us. When we 
set out to walk across the plains, Jenkins, pro- 
curing a horse and light cart, trotted along the 
country roads which followed the railroad track, 
stopping at the different stations until we made 
our appearance, and then driving on to the next 
one. 


88 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


It seemed to him such an exquisite joke that 
two boys should thus painfully tramp across 
the country, — perse veringly running away from 
nothing, — that, feeling sure the station-agents 
would appreciate the joke too well to spoil it, 
he would let them into the secret ; and while 
the agent, standing on the platform, would 
jocularly cheer us on our way, Jenkins would 
be sitting in the waiting-room, taking his ease, 
until such time as it should become necessary 
for him to drive on again. ^ 

After the episode of the train-wreckers Jen- 
kins might perhaps have lost us for a time had it 
not been for the fact that he was staying for the 
night at the station to which the conductor had 
gone for assistance, and walking back with him 
to the train had heard our request to be carried 
on. Promptly abandoning his horse and cart, 
he once more rode on the train with us, occupy- 
ing a different car. By our action in getting off 
short of Ogden he did lose us for the moment, 
but having found out from our talkative ac- 
quaintance that we were going to walk to Gol- 
conda, he went on to Ogden, where he met 
Jack, who had ridden down to meet us, Jenkins 
having kept him, as well as the folks at home, 
informed of our whereabouts. 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 89 

Setting out at once on horseback, the pair 
overtook us when we were yet two or three 
miles from our destination, and there Jenkins, 
his mission accomplished, turned back to town, 
whence he sent to Percy’s father the prearranged 
telegraphic message, “ Goods delivered.” 

When Jack had reached this point in his 
story he stopped. He was too kind-hearted to 
laugh at us again, knowing pretty well what 
was passing in our minds, and for a time all 
three sat silent, Percy and I furtively eying 
each other meanwhile. 

How exceedingly small we did feel ! To 
think that we had taken all this trouble, suffered 
all these discomforts, travelled all this distance, 
— for nothing ! 

As I watched Percy, however, I presently 
saw a change come over his face. He raised 
his head and sat up straight ; then, to the great 
astonishment of Toby, Jack’s horse, he suddenly 
sprang to his feet, dashed his hat upon the 
ground, and, snapping his fingers and thumbs, 
shouted “ Hurrah ! ” at the very top of his 
voice ; at the same time waving his arms above 
his head, and spinning round first on one foot 
and then on the other. 

1 knew what he was thinking about, because 


90 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

I was thinking the very same thing myself. I 
jumped up, too, kicked Percy’s hat far away 
into the bushes, hurled my own after it, and 
joined him in his shouting and capering and 
generally absurd behaviour; while Jack leaned 
back against a tree and laughed until the tears 
ran out of his eyes. 

“ Hold up, hold up, you two lunatics ! ” he 
cried, at last. “Don’t you think you’ve made 
yourselves ridiculous enough already without 
winding up in this way ? ” 

At this we rushed upon Jack, each seized one 
of his hands and shook it as though he were a 
long-lost friend whom we had expected never 
to see again, and at last, entirely out of breath, 
we flopped down on either side of him and sat 
there panting. 

“May I inquire,” said Jack, with extreme 
politeness, “ whether this is your usual style of 
behaviour, or whether the altitude has affected 
your brains? Or were you, perhaps, merely 
born foolish?” 

It was our turn to laugh. In fact, we felt 
so light-hearted we were ready to laugh at any- 
thing — ourselves included. What did we care 
about having made ourselves ridiculous ! When 
we thought of how our parents had never been 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 91 

worried about us all this time ; how they had 
kept watch over us without our knowing it; 
how, too, Sir Anthony had never thought of 
putting us into jail at all, — the relief to our 
minds was such that it was no wonder we 
carried on” in this flighty manner. For the 
first time in six or seven weeks we felt free from 
anxiety. All the policemen in England and 
America could not make us tremble. We were 
fugitives no longer ! 

“ But, Jack,” said Percy, after we had sat for 
some time asking innumerable questions of our 
new friend, “ what is going to become of us 
now ? ” 

^^That is for you to say,” replied Jack. 
have a letter of instructions up at the house. 
You are to have your choice : you may go 
straight home again if you like, or — ” Jack 
paused, and sat eying us in a critical manner, 
as if he were taking our measure ; sizing us 
up,” as he would have expressed it. 

Or what ? ” exclaimed Percy and I, together. 

Or this. What do you say to cutting loose 
from civilization altogether ; riding away into 
the mountains ; camping out all summer ; living 
on what we can shoot; and prospecting for 
gold as we go ? ” 


92 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


So magnificent an idea fairly took away our 
breath for a moment, but then, with one voice, 
we cried enthusiastically : I say ^ Yes.’ ” 

“All right,” said Jack. “Then that is what 
we will do ; and uncommonly glad I shall be of 
your company. You can be of great help to 
me ; for, as soon as you have learned to shoot 
straight, I shall leave to you the task of provid- 
ing the camp with game, and that will set me 
free to go prospecting. You see,” he went on, 
“ I am very anxious to find gold, if possible ; 
for this reason : My father owns a silver mine 
here in Golconda. He has done an immense 
amount of work upon it, and has spent a great 
deal of money in developing it, but just as we 
were going to begin stoping, — that is, taking out 
the ore, — a blast in the bottom of the shaft broke 
into an underground reservoir, apparently. At 
any rate, the water rushed in and drove out the 
miners ; we rigged a bucket and tried what that 
would do, but it was quite useless ; nothing 
short of a good pumping-engine will keep the 
water down. 

“ Unfortunately my father cannot afford to 
buy one, fot he had just expended the last of 
his available money in building a comfortable 
house for my mother and sister, who were com- 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 93 

ing out to live with us — and now they can’t 
come ! My father has gone East to try to bor- 
row the necessary money, but if he should fail, 
— why, then I don’t know what we shall do. 
So you see why it is that I am so particularly 
anxious to find a gold-placer — though, of course, 
it is most unlikely that I shall be able to do so ; 
especially as I don’t know anything of gold- 
washing.” 

I see,” said Percy. How much money will 
it require to buy a pumping-engine, and to start 
up the mine again ? ” 

^‘Five thousand dollars, perhaps,” replied 
Jack. Besides the cost of the pump, there is 
likely to be a great deal of work to be done 
in the mine after the water is taken out, — re- 
placing timbers, and cleaning out the drifts, 
which are very apt to cave in after a prolonged 
soaking.” 

Well,” continued Percy, “if we should find 
a placer, is it likely to be worth that much ? ” 

“There’s no telling,” replied Jack. “But if 
we find one at all, we want to find one worth 
more than that, because, you see, there ’s your 
share to come out.” 

“ Our share ! ” exclaimed Percy. “ Oh, we 
don’t want a share.” 


94 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


No,” I chimed in. Ours is a pleasure-trip. 
We don’t want a share.” 

“That wouldn’t be fair,” said Jack. “If 
you do part of the work you must have part of 
the pay — if there is any.” 

“Well, I don’t see that,” Percy objected. 
“We neither of us know anything about pro- 
specting. As for myself, I could n’t tell the 
difference between native gold and native brass 
— if there is such a thing.” 

“Which there isn’t,” said Jack, laughing. 

“ Look here,” I interrupted. “ I think I see 
a way out of this. If we should find a placer, 
— whatever that is, — the first five thousand dol- 
lars that come out of it, if so much ever does 
come out of it, shall go to Jack, oi*, rather, to Mr. 
Harding, and anything over shall be divided 
equally between the three of us. If our share 
shall be enough to pay our way home, so much 
the better.” 

“That is a first-rate idea,” said Percy, em- 
phatically ; and in spite of Jack’s protests we 
stuck to our point until, at last, he gave in. 

“ Well, you fellows,” said he, “ that is mighty 
good of you. Whether .we find anything or 
not, I’m much obliged to you beforehand. 
But, come. We must be moving. It is past 


Jack ; and What He had to Say 95 

supper-time already, and we have nearly three 
miles to go yet.” 

In course of time we came in sight of a ranch, 
and Jack, pointing to it, said : “ There ’s our 

destination. You see, as my father expected to 
be absent from Golcouda for several months he 
has rented our house in the town, and in conse- 
quence I have taken up my abode with a friend, 
a ranchman named George Gatlin.” 

The jolly ranchman welcomed us to his house, 
and we felt ourselves at home directly. It is 
true he poked fun at us in a good-natured way 
on the subject of our late escapade, but it was 
little we cared for that when Jack handed over 
to us letters from our parents, and one, ad- 
dressed to both, from Sir Anthony. 

To think that we had ever run away from 
such friends ! How kind the letters were ! 
Not a word of blame in them ; merely an intim- 
ation that we had acted too hastily and rather 
foolishly, and an assurance that had we been 
twice as hasty and twice as foolish it would 
have made no difference in the welcome that 
was always awaiting us at home. 



CHAPTER VI 


TWO OLD ACQUAINTANCES 

HAPPY and well-satisfied pair were we 



when, next day, after writing volumin- 
ous letters home, we set about making pre- 
parations for our projected expedition into the 
mountains. 

First of all there were the animals to be seen 
to. Jack already had a horse for himself, — 
Toby, — and he had besides a pair of stout little 
mules for packing purposes, one of which was 
named Calliope, because, under favourable atmos- 
pheric conditions, her voice might be heard at a 
distance of a thousand miles (at least, so Jack 
said), while the other, on account of his somnol- 
ent habits, and his proclivity for eating every- 
thing that came in his way, especially things 
not intended for him, had had bestowed upon 
him the name of Joe, in memory of the Fat 
Boy in Pickwick. Besides these. Jack pro- 


97 


Two Old Acquaintances 

cured for Percy’s use a smart little grey mare, 
and for me a big-boned, buckskin pony, which, 
though no beauty to look at, had a great 
reputation as a stayer. 

Last of the animals, though perhaps not least 
in importance, was Jack’s big, rough-coated, 
nondescript dog, who had been named Ulysses 
after the President of the United States, for the 
reason that, though of a peace-loving nature, he 
did, when once he got into a squabble, evince a 
determination to “ fight it out on that line if it 
took all summer.” 

Jack’s next care was to provide us each with 
a rifle and cartridges, a suit of clothes adapted 
to a life in the wilds, and two pairs of blankets. 
Then there was the purchase of provisions, con- 
sisting mainly of flour and bacon, tea and sugar, 
and a sack of dried apples ; and lastly came the 
necessary utensils, — a few pots and pans, tin 
plates and cups, a shovel, a pick, an axe, and the 
gold-pan; the last-named being a large copper 
pan with “flaring” sides which Percy and I 
supposed to be a dish-pan until Jack explained 
its use. 

On the eventful morning that had been fixed 
upon for the start we were roused from our 
slumbers by the voice of the ranchman boom- 


98 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


ing up the stairs, — “Roll out, roll out! Half- 
past five, and breakfast waiting ! ” and after 
sundry groans and yawns we bounced out of 
bed, scrambled into our clothes, and descended 
to the room below, where a good wash in cold 
water soon freshened us up. 

Breakfast over, the beasts were brought out 
and we proceeded to pack the mules with our 
various belongings, or, to speak more correctly. 
Jack and the ranchman proceeded to pack, 
while Percy and I looked on ; for, being as yet 
unacquainted with the mysteries of the “ dia- 
mond hitch,” and all the other arrangements of 
ropes necessary to the securing of a pack upon 
a mule, we should only have delayed matters 
had we attempted to assist. 

Under the hands of these two experts, how- 
ever, the work was accomplished with great 
celerity. In the course of about half an hour 
our two stout little mules were loaded with 
packs weighing something like two hundred 
pounds apiece, the horses were saddled, and we 
were ready to start, and after a cordial hand- 
shake from our host, the word was given and 
away we went ; Jack first, then the two mules, 
and Percy and I bringing up the rear. 

After riding across country, up hill and 


99 


Two Old Acquaintances 

down, for a couple of hours, we came upon a 
rough, little-used wood-road which ran gener- 
ally in the direction we were going, and taking 
this road we plodded on until about two o’clock, 
when, happening to look back, I observed a 
cloud of dust, in the midst of which was a horse- 
man who appeared to be galloping to overtake us. 
Our cavalcade came to a halt, and we watched 
the advancing rider in silence until, much to 
our surprise, his near approach disclosed the 
features of George Gatlin, our late host. 

W ell, boys,” said he, as he pulled up his 
smoking horse beside us, you did n’t expect to 
see me again quite so soon, did you ? Phew ! 
It ’s hot. We ’re in for a thunder-storm directly. 
And a good thing, too : it will cover up your 
tracks. Boys, I think there ’s someone on your 
trail, — someone you don’t want to meet.” 

What makes you think that, George ? ” 
asked Jack. 

Why,” replied the ranchman, just before 
dinner two men came to the house and asked a 
lot of questions about you : which way you had 
gone, how long since you had started, whether 
you were alone, and so on. They seemed to 
know a good deal about you, but they did n’t 
get much additional information out of me, be- 


loo The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


cause, when I asked them what they wanted to 
know for, they said that was their business ; so 
I told them that if they could n’t answer a civil 
question they might get otf the ranch and con- 
duct their business somewhere else — which they 
did ; riding off in the direction of Golconda.” 

But why should you think that we have any 
reason to be afraid of them ? ” asked Percy. 
“ What were they like ? ” 

“ One of them was a tall, dark-haired young 
fellow, English, I should say, from his accent. 
The other was a squat, red-haired man with a 
broken nose and a very remarkable voice. If 
he is n’t your train-wrecker friend I ’m much 
mistaken ; and if he is, his asking after you 
bodes you no good. He ’s a bad one, if looks 
count for anything.” 

This was disquieting news to Percy and me, 
for we had a lively dread of the man with the 
squeaky voice. Instinctively we turned to our 
leader for counsel. 

What are we to do. Jack ? ” I asked. 

‘‘Get off the road,” replied Jack, promptly. 
“ And the sooner that thunder-storm comes 
along the better, for our trail must be as plain 
as daylight all the way. Is there a stream. 


Two Old Acquaintances loi 

“Yes, right ahead. Let me go first, Jack; I 
know this country better than you do ; I Ve 
ridden all over it after cattle. You’d better 
lead the mules.” 

Soon we were strung out in line, and for half 
an hour we pegged along, every now and then 
casting back an anxious glance to see which was 
likely to overtake us first, Squeaky or the thun- 
der-storm. Presently we came to a shallow 
stream rippling merrily across the road, and hav- 
ing advanced half-way across it, the ranchman 
turned short to the right and proceeded to ride 
up its gravelly bed ; the rest following behind 
him. After splashing along in this manner for 
some distance, our guide scrambled out at a 
point where the stony nature of the ground 
would prevent the hoofs of the animals from 
leaving any trail, and thence he conducted us 
to a secluded hollow between two hills, com- 
pletely concealed from the view of any traveller 
down upon the road. 

“ Now, Jack,” he began — and then stopped. 
“ Hark ! ” he cried, holding up his hand. “ Do 
you hear that roaring noise ? It ’s hail. That 
will wipe out your tracks. But we must get 
under the lee of this rocky ledge, or it may 
stampede the stock. Here it comes ! ” as a blawt 


102 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


of cold air swept along the little valley. Hurry 
up!” 

We had hardly taken our positions under 
shelter of the rocks when the light of the sun 
was suddenly cut off and the temperature went 
down, I should think, fifty degrees in as many 
seconds ; then came a rumble of thunder ; there 
was a spat-spat j as half-a-dozen big hailstones 
came hopping along the hard ground ; and then 
all at once, the storm seemed to leap upon us, 
and for the next five minutes one could not hear 
himself shout for the roaring of the thunder and 
the rattling of the hail. The commotion ceased 
again as suddenly as it had begun ; out came 
the sun once more, and in another ten minutes 
the whole country was steaming with the 
moisture of the melted hailstones. 

‘^Now, Jack,” said the ranchman, continuing 
the speech he had begun when interrupted by 
the storm, “ what do you think of camping here ? 
You have made a very good distance for the 
first day’s march ; this is a good spot for a camp ; 
and what I was thinking of mostly is that we 
can watch the road from the- top of this hill 
and see if that fellow goes by. What do you 
think ? ” 

We all agreed that this was a good idea, and 


Two Old Acquaintances 103 

accordingly, while we three proceeded to unload 
the mules and make camp, George Gatlin as- 
cended the hill with Jack’s field-glass in his 
hand, and lying down among the rocks near the 
summit, kept watch upon the road, with little 
danger of being seen himself. The grateful 
mules, relieved of their burdens, were still roll- 
ing on their backs, kicking their heels in the 
air, and grunting with satisfaction, when we ob^ 
served that our sentinel was making signs to 
us to come up the hill ; we therefore hurried to 
his side, when he informed us that he had caught 
sight of two men riding along the road whom 
he believed to be the two who had called at 
the ranch that morning. 

“ I shall know as soon as they come in sight 
again round that bend,” said he. 

After lying for a minute or two, peering 
through the glass, he backed carefully down 
the hill a little way, and said in a low voice : 

Those are the men. Take a look at them. 
Jack. The one on the grey horse is the man 
with the squeaky voice.” 

Jack examined the men and handed the glass 
to Percy. No sooner had the latter obtained 
the focus than he uttered an exclamation of 
astonishment : 


104 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


‘^Tom, Tom!” he ejaculated; “that other fel- 
low, the one on the black horse, is Bates 1 ” 

“ Get out ! ” said I, incredulously, and seizing 
the glass I gazed long and earnestly at the 
younger of the two riders. 

It was Bates, sure enough. 

Here was an astonishing thing. To us it 
was a fact absolutely inexplicable that Bates, 
whom we had last seen peering through a hole 
in the wall of Hengist’s Castle, should be down 
there, riding along a disused road in the mount- 
ains of Utah, presumably looking for us. How 
came he there ? And why, of all people in the 
w^orld, should he have chosen that squeaky- 
voiced reprobate as his companion ? There was 
no telling. We were completely at sea. 

It was evident that our tracks had been obliter- 
ated, for as we watched them the riders splashed 
across the creek and continued on their way at 
the same pace, quite unsuspicious of the fact 
that the farther they went the farther they were 
leaving us behind. Presently they disappeared 
again from our view, when, leaving the hilltop, 
we returned to the camping-place and resumed 
our preparations for the night. 

It was not until darkness settled down that 
we ventured to light a fire, fearing that the 


Two Old Acquaintances 105 

smoke might betray our whereabouts, and it 
was pretty late that night ere we retired to 
our beds upon the bare ground after a pro- 
longed and entirely unsatisfying discussion of 
the subject of Bates’s mysterious appearance 
and of his and his companion’s object in seek- 
ing for us. 

Percy and I felt rather stiff and extremely 
sleepy when Jack aroused us next morning 
while yet the stars were shining, and prodigious 
were the yawns with which we greeted our com- 
panions and each other. A hot and plentiful 
breakfast, however, soon put us to rights, and as 
soon as it was despatched Jack and the ranchman 
set to work packing the mules, while we two sub- 
ordinates looked to the saddling of the horses. 
Everything being ready, we climbed into the 
saddles, and bidding a final adieu to our good 
friend, George, we set out over the hills on our 
second day’s march, just as the first reddening 
of the eastern sky proclaimed that the punctual 
sun was preparing to get up for his day’s work. 

As a matter of precaution Jack rode about 
half a mile ahead, in order that he might signal 
us to get away and hide in case we should 
come suddenly upon Bates and his companion ; 
though, had those gentlemen been awake and 


io6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


within hearing at the moment, they would un- 
doubtedly have discovered our presence at once, 
for as Jack galloped olf to take up his position 
in advance, our two mules raised a hideous cry, 
thinking that their dear friend, Toby, was about 
to desert them. It is curious how, in a small 
party like ours, one horse will usually assume 
the position of boss ” ; the others, and espe- 
cially the mules, looking to him for guidance, 
and feeling uneasy whenever he is out of sight. 

We had been riding in this order for about 
an hour, when Jack, who had just reached the 
brow of a gentle hill, suddenly wheeled around 
and came galloping back, waving his hand to 
us to draw off to one side behind some willows. 

There’s a camp-fire down the valley to the 
left,” said he, dismounting, ‘‘and I saw two 
horses tethered there. I noticed that the fire is 
built near a great pile of loose rocks, and I believe 
I can crawl up close to it without being discov- 
ered, and if I can do so I may be able to hear 
what they are after, and what they intend to do 
next. I think it is worth trying, don’t you ? ” 

“Let me go instead. Jack,” said Percy. “I 
should like to get up close to them so that I 
may make sure it is Bates. I only half believe 
it yet.” 


r 



9^ f*i 


4 


__ < 











» 


^4 






( ( 




HE LOOKED DOWN UPON THE TWO UNSUSPECTING CAMPERS 


Two Old Acquaintances 107 

“ All right,” replied Jack. You shall crawl 
up to their camp, and I ’ll stand guard a little 
way behind you. Tom shall stay here and take 
care of the horses.” 

This arrangement was followed out. The ani- 
mals were driven in among the willows, and I, 
who stayed to look after them, watched my 
companions as they went dodging and stooping 
around the end of the hill, until they disappeared 
from sight. 

Percy, leaving Jack behind him to act as a 
guard, crawled cautiously toward the little 
column of smoke until he had come within ten 
feet of it, and then, lying flat between two big 
stones, his face concealed by the long grass, he 
looked down upon the two unsuspecting camp- 
ers, who were sitting on either side of the fire 
cooking scraps of bacon on sticks. One of 
them was Bates ; there was no question of that. 
The other, too, disclosed his identity the mo- 
ment he spoke; it was, without doubt, the 
squeaky-voiced train-wrecker. 

Percy could not repress a tremor when he 
found himself once more so close to that pre- 
cious rascal. 

What did I leave Nebraska for ? ” Squeaky 
was saying. “Well, Nebraska was getting 


io8 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


unhealthy for me, and I thought I ’d try a 
change of climate. I was too much sought 
after there, and that ’s a fact. But what sent 
you out here ? You did n’t have to leave 
between two days, did you ? ” 

No,” replied Bates. I ’m travelling for 
pleasure, you see, — at least, I was, — and I ought 
to be well on my way to California now, but, 
unfortunately, I tried my luck in a gambling 
hall on^ evening and lost nearly everything I 
had. I never saw such a streak of bad luck.” 

The red-headed man nodded. ‘T know all 
about that,” said he. I was standing behind 
you when you lost your money, and I guessed 
by your actions that you was pretty well cleaned 
out. That ’s what made me speak to you, and 
propose we should work some scheme together 
to make a raise. I knew that when a man 
loses all his money gambling he ’s generally 
ready to go into any kind of a scheme, no 
matter what, to get a fresh supply, and when 
you told me about these two runaway school- 
boys I saw a chance to do it. How did you 
come to know about ’em, anyway ? ” 

I was at school with them,” replied Bates. 
“They got into a poaching scrape and ran away. 
The next thing I heard of them was finding 


Two Old Acquaintances 109 

their names in the paper as having prevented 
the wrecking of a train somewhere in Nebraska.” 

“What!” exclaimed the other. “Was it 
them ? ” 

Bates nodded ; and Squeaky’s face assumed 
a very ugly expression as he continued : 

“Then that ’s another reason for getting my 
hands on them. They owe me something, and 
if ever I get hold of them they ’ll have to pay.” 

“ Why ? What do you mean ? What have 
you to do with that business ? ” 

“ What have I — well, never mind that 
now. I ’ll explain later, maybe. So that ’s the 
pair, is it ? ” — and he went on mumbling to 
himself, with his mouth full of bacon. 

“ Look here, Morgan,” said Bates, presently. 
“ This plan of yours ” (Percy wondered what 
the plan might be) “ is all very fine and ingen- 
ious ; but before we can put it into practice 
we ’ve got to find the boys ; not such an easy 
thing, it seems to me, in this wide-open country.” 

“You’re right enough there,” replied Squeaky. 
“ But if we don’t run across them accidentally I 
know a way of catching them, sure.” 

“ How ’s that ? ” inquired Bates. 

“We know they ’re bound for Montana, don’t 
w^e? Found that out in Golconda. Just now 


no The Treasure^of Mushroom Rock 


they may be before us, or behind us, or on 
either side of us, and if we waste time pro- 
S];)ecting around this neighbourhood after them 
they may get clean away from us. Now, as 
far as I ’m concerned, 1 ’d just as soon go to 
Montana as anywhere else, — I Ve been there 
before, and I know the country, — and my 
scheme is to go straight ahead and ride along 
the stage-road until we come to the Snake River 
bridge, and if they have n’t gone by, to sit down 
there and wait for them. If they want to get 
to Montana they ’ve got to cross the Snake, and 
if they cross the Snake they ’ve got to go by 
the bridge ; it ’s too dangerous fording the river 
at this time of year when the snow is melting 
in the mountains. She’s a pretty fierce old 
river, is the Snake.” 

“ But,” Bates objected once more, “ supposing 
they don’t come to the bridge at all. Suppos- 
ing they do manage to get across the river 
somehow. What are we going to do then? 
The money I have left won’t last very long.” 

We ’ll wait for them at the bridge a week,” 
replied Squeaky, ^^and if they don’t come we’ll 
go on to Montana. As to the money, there ’s 
ways of making money. There’s the cards. 
I know all the tricks in that line, and I can 


Two Old Acquaintances m 

teach you. Then there ’s mining-deals, — that ’s 
a good notion. That ’s got to be thought about. 
Here ’s you, a rich young Englishman, looking for 
an investment; and here ’s me, the ^onest miner 
— yes, that ’s got to be thought about. Then 
there ’s stage-coaches to be held up, — that ’s a 
bit risky ; and so is running olf horses. But 
a man must live, and if we’ve got to do it, 
we ’ve got to, and that ’s all there is about it.” 

It did not seem to occur to this honest 
citizen, or to Bates either, for that matter, 
that there was yet another way of getting 
money, — rby working for it. 

By this time the pair had finished their 
breakfast, and having collected their few belong- 
ings they saddled up — Percy making himself as 
flat as possible during the operation — and rode 
away. 

As soon as they were safely out of sight, our 
scout rose to his feet and walked back to where 
Jack was stationed, and together they returned 
to the spot where I stood impatiently awaiting 
them. 

Well,” said our captain, when he had heard 
Percy’s report, “your friend Bates seems to 
have gotten into nice company. That is a 
smart fellow, that squeaky- voiced scoundrel ; he 


1 12 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


guessed our plans pretty well. My original 
intention was to ride up the stage-road from 
Corinne to the town of Bozeman, in Montana; 
but now that we know their scheme we ’ll just 
make a change in our own plan. They will 
wait for us a long time before they catch us at 
the bridge; we won’t go near it; we’ll go 
straight northward across country, leaving the 
road well away to our left. That fellow is 
right in saying that the Snake is a difficult river 
to cross ; but we ’ll find a way over somehow, 
never fear, even if we have to go up-stream 
until we get around its little end. By taking 
this course we shall give them the slip alto- 
gether; they will have no means of knowing 
what has become of us. All the same,” Jack 
added, impressively, “it will be well to keep 
our eyes open. Mr. Morgan, I suspect, would 
not stick at shooting any or all of us if it suited 
his purpose to do so. So, remember, — if you 
meet a short, square-built, red-haired man, with 
a broken nose, cock your rifie, and don’t let 
him get behind you. All aboard ! ” 



CHAPTER VII 


INTO THE WILDEENESS 


OR several days we marched steadily north- 



^ ward over a rolling country, camping at 
first upon streams which flowed south-westward 
to the Great Salt Lake, and latterly upon 
others which took a northerly course to join 
the turbulent Snake, the great southern branch 
of the Columbia. During this time, Percy and 
I, by systematic practice, became fairly expert 
in the art of packing ; Percy, too, having de- 
veloped unsuspected gifts as a cook, was unan- 
imously elected to fill that responsible position, 
while I, having no genius for anything in par- 
ticular, was allotted the more humble office of 
dish-washer. 

Whenever occasion permitted — while Percy 
was cooking and Jack chopping wood, per- 
haps — I would take the little single-barrelled 
shotgun and wander up the stream to try for 


1 14 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


some ducks, or over the hills in the hope of 
stirring up a Jack-rabbit or a sage-hen. Many 
a supper did Ulysses and I and the shotgun 
procure between us ; but as yet we had had little 
use for our rifles ; excepting one antelope which 
Percy and I had blazed at and missed, we had 
seen no large game, unless the occasional wolf 
and the frequent coyote be counted as such. 

What astute vagabonds are those coyotes, 
the street-arabs of the wilderness, their wits 
sharpened by the unceasing competition for a 
livelihood with their hungry I’elations, and with 
all the other carnivorous beasts of the field, — 
to say nothing of several of the birds of the 
air ! With what persistency would they sit 
around our camp-fire at night and serenade us 
with their doleful bowlings, and how silently 
would they glide away into the darkness when 
the indignant Ulysses rushed forth to devour 
them ! 

Ulysses, having been brought up in a town, 
was as yet unacquainted with the wiles of those 
“ subterfugious beasts,” as Percy called them, 
and great store of breath and energy did he ex- 
pend in frantic efiPorts to catch one, until, learn- 
ing by experience the futility of such a course, 
he contented himself with bestowing upon them 


Into the Wilderness 115 

a contemptuous glance when they trotted across 
our path, and, at a distance of twenty yards, 
impudently stood still to watch us go by. 

The coyote is generally spoken of with disre- 
spect as a cowardly, sneaking outcast, a lean 
and draggle-tailed caricature of his big cousin, 
the wolf. But, for my part, I confess I rather 
like him. His big ears, and his sharp, inquis- 
itive nose, make him the most wide-awake-look- 
ing animal I know ; while, as for activity, not 
even the antelope is more light-footed. His 
valour, I admit, is leavened by a large measure 
of discretion. He will run away, as a rule, from 
any dog that is more than half as big as him- 
self. But get him into a corner where he has 
no chance to run farther, and it will be a bold 
dog that will venture within range of his snap- 
ping jaws. 

That the coyote possesses good reasoning 
powers no one who is familiar with him will 
deny. He is aware, for instance, of the custom 
of the jack-rabbit to run in a circle when pur- 
sued, and on one occasion I saw him take ad- 
vantage of that knowledge, to the disgust of 
our honest friend Ulysses. We were encamped 
on an open plain, and Ulysses, going off on a 
private hunt, put up a jack,” which he pur- 


ii6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


sued with vociferous impetuosity. As I stood 
watching the chase, I observed a coyote come 
running toward the spot and take up a position 
on a little hillock, where he sat down to watch 
also. The rabbit, as usual, made a large circuit, 
and as he came back to the starting-point, with 
Ulysses, breathless but still hopeful, a hundred 
yards behind, the coyote rushed down from his 
perch, snapped up the rabbit, and ran off with 
it, leaving Ulysses seated on the ground, his 
long, red tongue hanging out, thinking — I have 
no doubt — uncomplimentary thoughts of the 
thieving vagrant who had defrauded him of his 
dinner. 

It was about the end of the second week of 
our journey that we came suddenly upon a 
swift, muddy river running in a rocky channel 
sunk deep below the level of the plain — the 
Snake. 

Although it was yet early in the afternoon, 
we went into camp at once in a fine grove of 
cottonwoods and willows fringing the banks 
of a little branch stream which there ran down 
to the river, and here Jack, taking from his 
pocket a large map, spread it upon the ground 
and issued a summons for an immediate council 
of war. 


Into the Wilderness 


117 


^^Now, you fellows,” said he, as we all sat 
cross-legged before the map, we have got to 
get to the other side of this river somehow or 
go home again. There are three ways of doing 
it : l)y fording, by rafting, or by going a long 
way down-stream to the bridge marked here. 
The last is out of the question, for our friend 
Squeaky is probably waiting there for us now. 
I think that if we can’t find a ford in a couple 
of days we had better build a little raft at some 
point where the river is not too swift, ferry our 
things across, and make the horses and mules 
swim. I have no doubt we might find a ford 
if we were to follow up the stream far enough, 
but you see the country is very little known up 
in that direction, for most of the branch streams 
are marked with dotted lines, showing that they 
are unexplored. So I think a raft — Hallo ! 
Ulysses. What ’s the matter with you ? ” 
Ulysses, who had been peacefully snoozing 
in the shade, at this moment sprang to his feet 
and began to growl, sniffing the breeze which 
blew up the river. Jack rose and looked in 
that direction through the tops of the willows, 
but hardly had he straightened up ere he 
ducked down again, and whispered : 

Horsemen. Riding on the other side of the 


ii8 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


river about a mile off. Coming this way. Get 
your rifles.” 

At some remote period in the earth’s history 
there had occurred in this neighbourhood a 
great volcanic eruption, covering the wide- 
spreading plain with a thick bed of lava. Into 
this lava-bed the strong, ceaseless flow of the 
river had cut a channel some fifteen to twenty 
feet deep, in the perpendicular walls of which 
there was no apparent break except at the point 
where the little stream upon which we were 
encamped ran down to the river. From where 
we stood we could see a long way down-stream, 
and with much anxiety we watched the ap- 
proaching riders. Was Squeaky there ? That 
was the question that troubled us. Had he 
somehow got wind of our movements, and had 
he abandoned his post at the bridge below in 
order to seek for our trail up the river ? 

I can’t make them out,” said Jack, who was 
gazing at them intently through the glass. 
^‘The sun is just behind them ” 

As he spoke the cavalcade suddenly vanished 
as though the earth had swallowed it up ; but 
in another minute it reappeared in the river. 
There was evidently a break in the wall which 
we could not see. 


Into the Wilderness 119 

It ’s all right,” exclaimed Jack, as soon as 
he got sight of them against the dark back- 
ground of the rocks. The first is a white 
man, then comes a pack-horse, then two little 
boys on one pony, bareback, then another pack- 
horse, and the last is an Indian ; a squaw, I ex- 
pect, from her size.” 

^^Well, that’s a comfort,” said Percy, in a 
tone of much relief ; a sentiment in which we all 
emphatically coincided. 

“ What are they going to do ? ” I asked pre- 
sently. What 'are they riding up the river 
like that for ? ” For they were splashing along 
up-stream close under the opposite bank. 

There ’s a ford here somewhere,” replied 
Jack, “ and it must come out at this point ; 
there ’s no other place. They know what they 
are about, you may be sure. That man is an 
old trapper, I expect.” 

The party kept on up-stream until they were 
nearly opposite the mouth of our little creek, 
and then the leader, turning short to his right, 
headed his horse across the river, the rest fol- 
lowing. The horses understood their business, 
evidently ; they came slowly across, walking 
sideways or nearly so, with their heads up- 
stream ; the water, which was very swift, being 


120 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

almost half-way up their bodies. It looked 
dangerous, especially for the little boys, who, 
should their horse stumble, would almost cer- 
tainly be swept away and drowned. 

The man was within twenty feet of the bank 
when the very thing we had been half expect- 
ing happened. The boys’ horse stepped into a 
hole, fell upon his knees, and was rolled over 
in a trice. The smaller boy was instantly 
whisked away ; but the elder, having the reins 
in his hands, held on to them. At the cry of 
the children the man looked back, and promptly 
swung his horse round to go to their assistance ; 
but seeing that the elder boy still had hold of the 
bridle, that the horse had regained his feet and 
was standing steady with his legs wide apart, 
and seeing also that the woman was making all 
possible haste to the rescue, he turned back 
again and came splashing towards the bank, with 
the intention of galloping down-stream and 
“ heading off ” the other boy, who, small though 
he was, was swimming along like a cork. 

The very instant that this catastrophe hap- 
pened Jack burst out of the willows and ran 
down towards the river, but Percy, having 
caught a glimpse of the small boy’s head bob- 
bing along down -stream, grabbed up a long 


Into the Wilderness 


I2I 


picket-rope which fortunately lay near at hand, 
and calling to me to follow, set off as hard as 
he could run down the bank. 

Having caught up with and passed the boy, 
who, with the stoicism of his half -Indian nature, 
was all this time swimming along without mak- 
ing a sound, Percy flung the coil of rope to me 
with a Hold on to that, Tom,” seized the end 
between his teeth, scrambled down the rocks, 
waded out as far as possible, and then, throw- 
ing himself forward, struck out for mid-stream. 
As the little brown-faced youngster came sweep- 
ing by, Percy grasped him by the shirt between 
the shoulder-blades, gripped the rope with his 
left hand, and called to me to haul in. 

It was all very well to say Haul in ” ; the 
best I could do, sitting with my feet braced 
against the rocks, was to avoid being hauled in 
myself, the current was so strong. The mo- 
ment the rope tightened, down went Percy and 
the boy under the water, reappearing directly 
with much spluttering and gasping; and then 
for the first time the little shaver began to cry 
and struggle. At the same moment there was 
a rush of footsteps, and Jack was down in the 
water pulling on the rope, which, between us, 
we drew in hand over hand. Percy and the 


122 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


boy were almost within reach when I heard a 
clatter of hoofs behind me, and a tall man 
threw himself from his horse, half climbed and 
half tumbled down the rocks, waded into the 
river, and seized the boy by the shoulder and 
Percy by the wrist ; none too soon, either, for 
Percy’s arm was almost pulled out at the socket. 

Two minutes more, and we were all high and 
dry on the bank again, shaking hands with each 
other, and praising the little whimpering young- 
ster for being so brave. The whole thing, I 
believe, occupied hardly five minutes. 

The tall stranger, who stood there still holding 
his shivering little son in his arms, was evidently 
a man of few words, one of the silent kind who 
have neither the gift nor the habit of express- 
ing their feelings in fiowing language. Setting 
the boy upon the ground and telling him to 
cut along ” to his mother, he extended his 
hand again to Percy and said, “ You did that 
mighty well, — mighty well. I am ever so much 
beholden to you. Come on. Let ’s get back to 
camp.” 

The Indian woman had already lighted a fire, 
and the two little brown-bodied rascals, stripped 
of their clothing, were running about quite 
happy, not a whit the worse for their ducking. 


Into the Wilderness 


123 


While the squaw unpacked and unsaddled the 
horses, which she set about doing as though it 
were her regular duty (as no doubt it was), the 
man came over to the roaring camp-fire I had 
started, and with Percy and Jack took up a posi- 
tion before it, where he and they were soon 
steaming away like so many geysers. 

‘‘ Hunting ? ” asked our laconic new acquaint- 
ance. 

“Yes,” replied Jack, with equal brevity. 

“ Going across the river ? ” 

“Yes; going up to Montana. How’s grass 
and water and game ? ” 

“ First rate. Going up the Henry ? ” 

“Well, I don’t know for certain. I thought 
of following along the foothills of the Teton 
range, and doing a little prospecting. Do you 
know the country ? ” 

“ Mighty well, some of it. I ’ve hunted 
around here the last five years. My name ’s 
Jim Perkins ; folks call me Tracker Jim.” 

“ Oh, then, I ’ve heard of you,” exclaimed 
Jack. “Wasn’t it you who held a pass some 
years ago against a band of Blackfeet, some- 
where up beyond the Gallatin valley ? ” 

The man nodded. 

“Won’t you tell us about it?” asked Percy, 


124 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


turning round to roast the other side of his 
person. 

Why, there ain’t much to tell. About a dozen 
young bucks went off on the rampage, and as 
some of the settlers was in danger I went to warn 
them. There was five women and half-a-dozen 
children and only three men, and the Blackfeet 
caught up with us just as we were coming out at 
the top end of a narrow canon, so I stayed be- 
hind to stand ’em off while the rest cleared out.” 

“Well?” said Percy, inquiringly; for Mr. 
Tracker Jim seemed disposed to stop there. 

“ Well, I got behind a I’ock, and we had 
a lively time for a spell, them shooting at me 
and me shooting at them. The walls of the 
canon was too steep for ’em to climb up and 
get behind me, but one of ’em climbed up part 
way, where he could get a sight of me, and a 
mighty good shot he was, considering what an 
awkward standing-place he had; the bullets 
kept a-pecking up the ground all around me as 
I lay flat behind my boulder; and whenever I 
tried to shoot back at him, all the others would 
blaze away at me.” 

“Were n’t you frightened ? ” I asked, regard- 
ing him with the greatest interest. 

“Scared blue,” replied the modest hero. 


Into the Wilderness 


125 


But I stood ’em off till dark, and then a party 
of cowboys come along and toted me out o’ 
there. After that I left that part of the country 
and come down here.” 

You were wounded, were n’t you ? ” inquired 
Jack. 

Why, yes. I had my left hand broke, and 
I was hit in five other places; but you see 
they did n’t know that, or they ’d ’a’ rushed the 
place, and then I ’d ’a’ bin a goner.” 

The man told this brief tale in the quietest 
and most matter-of-fact way. He did not look 
for applause ; he merely mentioned the matter 
because he had been asked to do so ; and as to 
regarding himself as a hero, such an idea, seem- 
ingly, had never occurred to him. 

As Jack said, in talking of him afterwards, 
there are two classes of frontiersmen : one 
whose members brag and talk and swell 
around,” and do nothing, performing their 
deeds of heroism by word of mouth in the bar- 
rooms of the settlements; the other composed 
of those men who do things and say nothing — 
men whose deeds, courageous almost past the 
understanding of ordinary stay-at-home folks, 
are the beginning and the foundation of the 
stirring history of the Great West. 


126 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

Our friend standing there by the fire was one 
of the latter ; though no one suspected it less 
than he. 

“ Is there any danger from Indians between 
here and Bozeman ? ” asked Jack presently — 
a question of great moment to us, for it had been 
mutually agreed between us that we had no right 
to take any risk so serious as an encounter with 
Indians, and should our new friend reply in the 
afiS^rmative we felt that our duty to our parents, 
to say nothing of our solicitude for our own 
safety, would compel us to hark back to the stage- 
road, — Squeaky or no Squeaky, — or even to 
abandon our expedition altogether. Tracker Jim 
therefore lifted a great weight from our minds 
when, in response to Jack’s inquiry, he said : 

No ; not the way you intend to go, be- 
tween the Tetons and the Henry River ; espe- 
cially so early in the year as this.” 

Can you give us any advice as to the best 
course ? ” Jack continued. 

“Well, in a general way, all you ’ve got to 
do is to keep the Tetons on your right and the 
Henry on your left until you come to the head- 
waters of the river. I ’ve heard say it heads in a 
lake, but I never was up that far. Then you ’ll 
have to bear a little to your left until you 


Into the Wilderness i^7 

strike Bozeman or Virginia City or the stage- 
road. It ’s simple enough. After you ’ve 
crossed the Snake, here, you can head straight 
for the Grand Teton if you want to. If you ’re 
hunting scenery as well as game it ’s worth 
going out of your way to see; it ’s the finest 
mountain in America that I know of.” 

“I think we may as well do that,” replied 
Jack. ‘‘Eh, you fellows? Time and place are 
no very particular objects with us.” 

To this proposition we assented ; and just 
then I observed that the Indian woman was 
making signs to Tracker Jim. 

“The woman says supper ’s ready,” he re- 
marked. “ Come on, if you ’re dried out 
enough.” 

Gladly accepting this invitation, we marched 
over to the other camp, armed with our own 
tin plates and cups; being received by the 
silent Indian woman with a broad smile. A 
very noble supper we had that night. Two 
courses, — soup and meat. Uncommonly good 
that soup was too. It was made of the tail of 
a beaver ; the second course consisting of the 
beaver itself, baked before being cleaned, — a 
fact we did not discover till afterwards ; which 
was just as well, perhaps. 


128 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

Our new friend having volunteered to show 
us the way across the dangerous ford, we 
followed him next morning into the river and 
shortly found ourselves standing in safety upon 
its northern bank, where, with mutual good 
wishes, we took leave of Tracker Jim, and turn- 
ing our faces toward the east plunged into the 
unknown wilderness ; highly delighted at the 
thought of how we had circumvented Squeaky, 
who, we had no doubt, was at that moment 
impatiently awaiting our appearance at the 
bridge below. 

We had not long passed the Snake ere we 
discovered that we had come into a country 
very different from that we had hitherto been 
traversing. For one thing, game of all sorts 
became abundant. One could not ascend a hill 
without seeing at least one band of antelope, 
and more often three or four; while, as we 
approached the mountains, black-tail and white- 
tail deer began to make their appearance, elk 
were occasionally seen, and now and then a 
bear. These last, by mutual consent, we very 
carefully left alone ; we decided that we had 
no right to take any risks with them. 

With all this game to practise on, Percy and 
I soon became fairly expert hunters, and it was 


Into the Wilderness 


129 


not long ere J ack abandoned to us entirely the fas- 
cinating duty of supplying the camp with meat. 

Another particular in which the passage of 
the Snake had produced a great change was 
in the nature of the country itself. In place 
of the long stretches of barren sand we found 
rolling hills covered with luxuriant grass, in- 
tersected by deep canons which sometimes 
forced us to go several miles out of our course 
in search of a crossing-place. 

We discovered also that as a guide our map 
was now practically useless. Such features of 
the country as the mountains of the Teton 
range, the most conspicuous objects within a 
circle of a hundred miles, or a great river 
like the Snake, were set down with some 
pretentions to accuracy, but otherwise our 
speculative map-maker had committed sins both 
of omission and commission. He had decorated 
his map with streams and mountains which did 
not exist, while a trifling feature such as the 
Teton Basin, a district containing some eight 
hundred square miles of the finest grass-land, he 
appeared to think unworthy of notice ; at any 
rate he had neither named nor indicated it 
upon his map. Evidently this important basin, 
though well known to trappers and hunters. 


130 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

was a terra incognita to the world in general 
and to our geographer in particular. 

But it was little we cared about that. We 
were not afraid of losing ourselves. We could 
not well cross the Teton range to the east with- 
out being aware of it, while we knew that by 
turning westward and continuing in that di- 
rection for an indefinite number of miles we 
should eventually come first upon the Henry 
River and later upon the stage-road. In fact, 
the unreliability of our map rather added zest to 
our enterprise ; it proved, to our satisfaction at 
least, that we might with justice lay claim to 
the proud titles of Pioneers of the Wilderness,” 
‘^Explorers of the Great West.” So strong, 
indeed, was this feeling of self-complacency, 
that, as we rode along in the glorious sunshine, 
with the peak of the Teton straight in front of 
us, Percy burst forth si-nging Hail Columbia 
with great gusto. He was obliged to desist, 
however, after the first verse, for Calliope in- 
sisted upon joining in, with disastrous results. 
Calliope might be a good singer (for a mule), 
but it must be confessed she had one fatal fault : 
she would not pay attention to the time or the 
tune; a defect which is ruinous to the proper 
rendering of a concerted piece. 



CHAPTER VIII 


A QUEER COUNTRY 


N eastward ride of several days carried us to 



the neighbourhood of the Grand Teton, a 
splendid mountain, whose height, isolation, and 
conspicuous outline have made it a landmark and 
guide to the trapper and the explorer ever since 
the days when Lewis and Clark first struggled 
across the continent; and thence, diverging to 
the left, we took a northward course along the 
foothills. 

Our progress through this thickly timbered 
country was extremely slow, for we felt it neces- 
sary to test for gold every one of the numberless 
little streams which cut across our path, some- 
times making a stop of two or three days for 
the purpose. 

A common obstacle to a rapid advance, too, 
was the frequent occurrence of swamps, — the 
work of the beavers. The cleverness of these 
little engineers is matter for admiration, but the 


132 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


result of their labours is apt to be annoying to 
the traveller. They would build a dam across a 
stream, backing up the water until it overflowed 
its banks on either side ; then they would go a 
little farther up-stream and build another, and 
another, and another, until the valley for several 
miles of its length would be converted into an 
impassable morass. 

These oft-recurring impediments, as I have 
said, rendered our northward progress very 
slow. At length, however, sometime early in 
August as we supposed — for we had but a very 
indefinite idea of the progress of time — we were 
forced out of our course by a great series of beaver- 
dams, and going a long way to the left in the 
attempt to circumvent them, we came upon a 
good-sized river flowing swiftly toward the 
south. On consulting our map we decided that 
this must be the Henry, or North Fork of the 
Snake ; but our map-maker, though he had 
knowledge of the existence of such a stream, 
evidently did not know many particulars con- 
cerning it, for he failed altogether to take notice 
of the fact that it had its source in a beautiful 
lake, upon whose shore we unexpectedly found 
ourselves one day. It was the lake that our 
friend Tracker Jim had mentioned. 


13 


A Queer Country 

By this time Percy and I had begun to 
understand what was meant by the name 
“ Rocky Mountains.” Previously, I, at least, 
had taken my idea of this great “ system ” from 
the maps in common use in English schools, 
where the backbone of the continent was re- 
presented by an object which might be taken 
for a long, hairy caterpillar crawling up from 
Mexico to the Arctic Ocean ; sometimes with 
little caterpillars crawling beside it. It had 
never occurred to me (or to Percy either, I 
believe) that one might travel from east to 
west for seven hundred miles or more and be 
surrounded by mountains all the way. In 
common with most schoolboys (begging their 
pardons if I do them an injustice) I vaguely 
supposed that I should find a long string of 
peaks, rough and sharp-pointed like the Grand 
Teton, with depressions between them, over 
which one might climb with difficulty; but 
that anybody could pass over the main range 
of the Rocky Mountains and not know it, would 
have seemed to me too absurd to be thought of 
for a moment. Nevertheless, that is precisely 
what we did, impossible as it may seem. 

Leaving the lake on our left hands, we rode 
up a gentle acclivity and down the other side, — 


134 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


as we had done a hundred times before, — and 
presently found ourselves on the bank of a fine 
creek running toward the north. Without sus- 
pecting it, we had passed from the Pacific to 
the Atlantic side of the great continental water- 
shed; we were standing by a stream which 
was flowing to join the Missouri, a tributary 
of that mighty river upon whose bank we had 
stepped from an ocean-going vessel so many 
weeks before. 

It may appear strange that none of us should 
have had any inkling of the truth, but, as to 
Percy and me, how were we to guess that the 
gi’eat river upon whose left bank we had landed 
when coming from the east should have any 
connection with a stream upon whose left bank, 
again, we found ourselves when coming from 
the south-west ? We did not take into account 
the immense bend that the Missouri makes be- 
fore it enters upon its southerly course. 

Even Jack, with his greater knowledge and 
his far greater experience, was deceived by the 
ease with which we had traversed the pass. 
He did, indeed, express some surprise at finding 
so large a stream on the other side, and won- 
dered if, and how, it found its way into the 
lake we had just left, but he was as far as our- 


A Queer Country 135 

selves from suspecting that he had crossed the 
main range. 

“Well,” said he, as we stopped to let the 
horses drink, “I ’m rather puzzled which way 
to go : up, down, or across this stream. The 
country to the right looks most promising for a 
gold-hunter, but we shall be getting a pretty 
long way from the settlements in Montana if 
we go in that direction ; besides which Tracker 
Jim told us that we must bear to the left after 
passing the lake. What do you think about 
it?” 

“We have a fair supply of flour and sugar 
left,” said Percy ; “ so, as far as provisions are 
concerned, there is no need of going near any 
settlement at present. I should be inclined to 
say ^ up.’ ” 

“ So should I,” was my contribution to the 
debate. “ The country in front of us does not 
look very promising, and as gold-hunting is the 
main object of this excursion I think we should 
go where we are most likely to find it, — which 
seems to me to be up-stream ; so I say ‘ up ’ too.” 

“Suppose we go into camp at once,” said 
Jack. “And then we can talk it over after 
supper. Here ’s a pretty good place for camp, 
now, in the shelter of this clump of pines.” 


13 ^ The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


As we rode round the end of the group of 
trees in order to get upon its leeward side, I 
caught sight at a great distance of a long string 
of animals walking in procession across the 
valley. 

^^Jack!” I cried. “Look! What are those ? ” 

Jack’s glass was out in an instant. 

“ Elk,” said he. “ A whole band of them. 
There must be fifty. Tom, will you make 
camp by yourself ? Percy and I will go after 
them at once.” 

Accordingly away they rode ; while I un- 
packed the mules — tethering them to prevent 
their running off in pursuit of Toby — and 
made preparations for the night. This occupied 
me for about an hour, and then, taking the shot- 
gun, I wandered off up the pine-clad spur of 
the mountain to see if I could get a few grouse. 
These birds were very plentiful, and, either 
from natural foolishness or because they had 
not yet learned from experience how destructive 
an animal is man, they were very easy to shoot. 
On being disturbed they would fly up into the 
nearest tree, and one might shoot three or four 
of them before it would occur to the surviv- 
ors that it might be dangerous to remain 
there. 


137 


A Queer Country 

On this particular occasion, however, my 
hunt for grouse came to nothing. I was about 
to walk across a little open space in the woods, 
when, from among the trees on the opposite 
side, about thirty steps away, there suddenly 
appeared two little woolly animals which, though 
I had never seen such a thing before, I knew 
must be young bears. They were evidently out 
for a spree. They chased each other over the 
grass; bit, buffeted, and tumbled over each 
other, growling all the time with a great show 
of ferocity. I was so interested in watching 
them that I forgot for the moment the fact that 
the old bear must be somewhere close by. As 
soon as that thought did occur to me, however, 
I prepai’ed to slip away, but just as I was about 
to do so the gambols of the little bears brought 
them over to my side of the open space, when, 
catching sight of me, they stopped, and, with 
their heads cocked on one side, stood thought- 
fully staring me out of countenance. As I 
remained perfectly still they gained courage to 
advance near enough to sniff at my ankles, and 
finding that nothing alarming followed this act 
of temerity they next proceeded to worry the 
legs of my overalls, just as two young puppies 
would do. It was great fun for them, and it 


13 ^ The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


would have been great fun for me, too, had it 
not been for my fear that the old bear might 
come and spoil it all. 

I had about decided that it would be an act 
of wisdom on my part to kick the little bears 
and send them off home, when, happening to 
look across the open, I saw something which 
sent my heart into my mouth, — her Ladyship 
had arrived. From her great size and her grey 
colour I guessed she must be a grizzly, and re- 
membering with thankfulness that the grizzly 
is no climber, I cast my eyes from side to side 
in search of a tree to ascend, the one which 
sheltered me being too big. Fortunately I was 
not reduced to this necessity. The old bear, as 
soon as she saw where her cubs were, uttered a 
sound which was evidently a note of recall, for 
the young ones at once ceased to worry my 
trousers, and ran across to her. The old lady 
did not appear to be in the best of tempers, for 
she saluted each of her children with a cuff on 
the side of the head which sent him rolling over 
and over, — it seemed to me to be hard enough to 
knock their heads off altogether, — and turning 
about, walked off ; my two little friends follow- 
ing demurely behind. 

As for myself, as soon as they were out of 


39 


A Queer Country 

sight, I departed from the neighbourhood with 
undignified celerity. 

Coming down to the camp again, I was sur- 
prised to observe that Ulysses, who had been 
left in charge, was standing guard over the 
baggage with his bristles all erect, growling 
away to himself at a great rate. I observed, 
too, that the mules were standing with their 
heads held high, gazing intently in the direction 
of the pass we had traversed that morning, 
though they could not see it on account of the 
intervening strip of woods. Thinking that pos- 
sibly another bear might be prowling about, I 
ran down to the camp in order to exchange my 
shot-gun for a rifie, but as I was slipping a car- 
tridge into the latter I paused for an instant, 
for I had heard a sound I had not heard for 
a long time, — the sound of a strange human 
voice. 

Calling Ulysses to heel, I crept in among the 
trees and peered out on the other side. There, 
coming down the pass, was a bunch of horses, 
and behind them two men ; the whole cavalcade 
looking very dusty and very weary. They 
made their way straight to the river, where 
horses and men at once proceeded to quench 
their thirst. While the horses were still drink- 


140 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

ing the two men rose from their knees and be- 
gan to talk ; I could hear them, but they were 
too far off for me to distinguish more than an 
occasional word. 

They appeared to be disputing. The shorter 
man gesticulated vigorously, and pointing across 
the river to some high hills whose rocky tops 
showed above the trees, he made some remark 
loudly enough for me to catch the word to- 
night.” The other, who leaned against his 
horse as though he were extremely tired, ap- 
peared to be remonstrating; whereupon his 
companion shouted at him : 

You young fool, do you want to be hung?” 

It had seemed to me that there was some- 
thing familiar in the voices, but when the man 
shouted in that manner I knew in a moment 
who he was ; for at the word fool,” his voice 
went off like a whistle-pipe. 

As if to confirm my suspicion, one of the herd, 
more lively than the rest, broke away, and 
came galloping in my direction, closely pursued 
by the taller of the two men. When within 
about fifty yards of my hiding-place it swerved 
round, and I then obtained a good sight of the 
rider’s face. As I had supposed, it was Bates. 

“So,” thought I, “you have gone into the 


A Queer Country 14 ^ 

horse-stealing business now, have you, you 
unfortunate chap ? ” 

All this time I had been on pins and needles 
lest our mules should bray and thus betray my 
presence, and in consequence it was with very 
sincere pleasure that I saw the party splash 
across the stream and make oif in the direction 
of the rocky hilltops ; the men pausing to look 
back toward the pass ere they plunged into the 
woods. In about half an hour I caught sight 
of them again, crossing an open space upon the 
hillside, and again I observed that they paused 
to look back. Evidently they were in fear of 
pursuit. 

Our hunters presently returning to camp, I 
at once related to them the event of the after- 
noon. 

Well, that settles the question for us,” said 
Jack. As they have gone off toward the left, 
we will go off toward the right, — up-stream. 
They won’t interfere any more with us, I ex- 
pect, for it is pretty plain that they have given 
up looking for us, and have taken to horse- 
stealing as the next best thing to boy-stealing. 
All they are thinking of just now is to make 
their way to some place where they can dispose 
of the horses before they are overtaken. We 


142 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

might even follow in their tracks with safety, 
for if they saw ns coming, they would probably 
run away from ns. On the other hand, as we 
are only three, they might ambuscade ns, — 
which would not be pleasant. And so, I think, 
the msest thing we can do will be to give them 
as wide a berth as ]3ossible by going off in the 
opposite direction.” 

‘‘Decidedly,” said Percy. “The farther we 
keep away from them the better.” 

“ That is what I think,” I chimed in. “ Let 
us give them all the start they like; I don’t 
want to catch up ANUth them. Up-stream for 
me.” 

“ And me,” echoed Percy. “ Do you suppose, 
Jack,’^ he went on, “ that if they were caught 
they would be hung ? ” 

“ Undoubtedly,” replied Jack ; “ unless they 
were shot first.” 

“Poor old Bates,” said Percy, refiectively. 
“To think that the trick he played upon us, 
which made us run away for fear of being 
hung, should have worked round so that now 
he is running away for the same reason. Upon 
my word I ’m sorry for him.” 

But however sorry we might be for Bates, 
we were none the less determined to avoid his 


143 


A Queer Country 

company, at least as long as he should choose 
to consort witli his present ally, and accord- 
ingly we set off next morning up the stream, 
following along its left bank until we arrived 
at the point where its feeders became small and 
rapid. Passing from one to the other of these 
little creeks, and working always towards the 
left, we tested each one as we came to it ; 
always without success, but always hopeful for 
better fortune next time. Under Jack’s super- 
vision we two novices had taken many lessons 
in the art of gold- washing, — or, ratheiyin the 
art of washing for gold, — and we were now 
fairly expert in manipulating the pan, but 
however expert we might be our labour pro- 
duced nothing ; either the country was barren 
of the precious metal, or we had not found the 
right places. It was very disappointing, — to 
Jack especially, — but the hopefulness of youth 
was on our side, and every failure only de- 
termined us the more to persevere. 

On one of these occasions of our moving 
camp from one creek to the next we found 
that the distance between creeks was much 
gi-eater than we had expected, and as a con- 
sequence the darkness overtook us before we 
could find a suitable camping-ground. Emerg- 


144 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


ing at length from the woods upon a little 
grassy plateau which would serve our purpose, 
we quickly unpacked and turned loose the 
animals, which, having first enjoyed their pre- 
liminary roll, walked off according to custom 
to take a drink from the creek. To our sur- 
prise, they did not seem to like the water; 
they walked along the hank, tasting the stream 
in different places, and snorting in a dissatisfied 
manner. Going over to find out the reason, we 
discovered that the water was strongly impreg- 
nated with iron and sulphur. Presumably some 
mineral springs ran into it from up above some- 
where. However, the horses presently came to 
the conclusion that they must drink there or go 
without, and having satisfied their thirst they 
wandered off and soon were comfortably crop- 
ping the grass. 

Meanwhile we had lighted a fire, and having 
cooked and eaten our supper were thinking of 
going to bed, when the moon rose, and by its 
light we noticed for the first time that the 
ground not far removed from where we were 
was all covered with some white substance, 
presenting a very s|irange appearance in the 
midst of the black woods. 

“ What is that ? ” I asked, shading my eyes 


145 


A Queer Country 

from the glare of the fire, and peering into the 
darkness. It can’t be snow.” 

I should say it was egg-shells,” remarked 
Percy. There ’s an uncommonly strong smell 
of bad eggs about here.” 

“ I don’t think your egg-shell theory will 
pass, Percy,” said Jack, laughing ; “ the smell 
of bad eggs probably comes from some sulphur- 
springs in the neighbourhood. I expect that 
white stuff is deposit from the springs ; though 
I never saw so much in one place before. Let 
us go down that way and have a look.” 

We had advanced some distance along the 
gloomy alley of trees, Ulysses trotting behind, 
when Percy stopped, holding up his finger. 

^^Hark!” he exclaimed. “What is that 
sizzling noise ? ” 

We stood still to listen. Sure enough there 
was a sizzling noise going on somewhere near ; 
a noise like the frying of a beefsteak. We 
went poking forward in the dark with our 
noses near the ground, and presently Jack, who 
was on the left, said : 

“It ’s just here, whatever it is. Have you a 
match, Tom ? ” 

I struck a match and held it low down where 
the sound came from. To my great surprise — 


146 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

for there was not a breath of air stirring — the 
match was instantly blown out. I struck 
another. The same thing happened. 

“That’s curious,” said Jack. “Wait a mo- 
ment ; I ’ll go back to the fire and bring a 
lighted stick.” 

He had hardly spoken when a most astound- 
ing incident occurred. There was a dull thud 
like the explosion of loose gunpowder; a 
shower of mud bespattered us all over, and a 
cloud of steam puffed into our faces. 

To say that we were frightened would be to 
put it altogether too mildly. Ulysses, giving 
vent to a howl of dismay, clapped his tail 
between his legs and disappeared into the 
woods ; and as for us, we staggered back, and 
stood for a moment trembling and speechless. 
One does not, as a rule, care to confess having 
been afraid, but I own with perfect readiness 
that I was on this occasion very much afraid, 
and Jack and Percy I know will own as much. 
If anybody shall choose to scoff at us he is 
welcome ; but I should like to see the hero who 
would preserve his equanimity under such cir- 
cumstances. An unexpected explosion at any 
time or in any place is a terrifying thing. 
How much more terrifying must it be then 


A Queer Country 147 

in the darkness and silence of an untrodden 
wilderness ? 

As Percy afterwards said, it was enough to 
scare anybody to have the solid earth all of a 
sudden get up and fly at you like that. 

As soon as we could collect our senses we ran 
back to the fire, and there again we stood still 
for a short time gazing apprehensively into the 
darkness ; wondering what was to happen next, 
and what it was that had happened already. 
Our captain was the first to recover the use of 
his tongue. 

I wonder what that was,” said he. I 
never was half so scared in my life. It seems to 
be all quiet now. Shall we go back and look ? ” 

It was not easy to screw up one’s courage to 
go near the place again, but anything was better 
than uncertainty. Making, therefore, a couple 
of torches, we walked back to the scene of the 
explosion. 

For a space about fifteen feet square we found 
the turf all broken into pieces and much of it 
turned upside down, while between the frag- 
ments there issued a light cloud of steam. The 
turf itself was damp and warm. 

“ Well,” said Jack, I expect no three fellows 
ever had such a surprising thing happen to 


The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

them before. I think I can account for it, 
though. There must be a good many hot springs 
about here — there ’s the irony taste of that creek, 
and the white stuff down below, and the smell 
of bad eggs — and I expect the steam fi’om one 
of them has found its way under the turf to this 
spot, and as soon as there was enough of it it 
blew up.” 

“That ’s it, I Ve no doubt,” said I. “But 
look here. Jack; how are we to know that it 
won’t blow up under our beds to-night ? That 
would be worse than this was.” 

“ I expect we are all right as far as that goes,” 
replied Jack. “You see there was no sizzling 
noise about the camp, and the one we heard was 
caused, I suppose, by the steam squeezing its 
way out from under the turf. I don’t suppose 
such a thing happens once in a thousand years.” 

“ I hope it does n’t,” Percy put in. “ Two or 
three more of them would turn my hair grey. 
Come. Let us go to bed. What ’s become of 
old Lyss, I wonder ? Oh, there he is by the fire. 
Here, Lyss ! ” — whistling. 

But Ulysses was not to be persuaded. He 
stood by the fire wagging his tail when we 
called to him, but no blandishments could in- 
duce him again to approach the place where 


149 


A Queer Country 

he had been so nearly scared out of his wits. 
Scientific explanations were wasted on him. 

After sitting around the fire for some time, 
discussing this strange phenomenon, we retired 
to bed, not feeling any too sure that we might 
not be pitched out and parboiled before morn- 
ing; and though nothing so serious as this 
occurred, the night was not destined to pass 
without disturbance. We had been asleep some 
time when Jack was awakened by Ulysses’ 
whining and trying to crawl into his bed. This 
extraordinary behaviour on the part of the 
usually discreet old dog naturally disturbed 
Jack’s slumbers, and rousing himself to see what 
was the cause of it, he heard a strange noise go- 
ing on somewhere, which caused him to call out : 
“ Tom ! Percy ! wake up ! ” 

As we had gone to sleep with our nerves set 
with a hair-trigger we awoke in a second, and, 
sitting up on our beds, listened. 

From the valley below there came a mixed 
sound of thumping, roaring, and splashing; 
and presently in the bright moonlight we saw a 
great cloud, like a bolster five hundred feet 
high standing on end, go sailing up the valley, 
soon to be followed by others, a dozen or two, 
one behind the other. 


150 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

It was a strange country indeed that we had 
come into. 

Suddenly Jack startled us by clapping his 
hands together and shouting out : 

I know ! I know what ’s the matter. We 
have crossed the range without knowing it, — 
it must have been the day we left the lake, — 
and we have wandered into the geyser basins 
of the Yellowstone region. That’s what’s the 
matter.” 

Wandered where?” asked Percy and I 
together. 

‘‘ Into the geyser region.” 

What ’s that ? ” 

What ! Have n’t you heard of the geysers 
of the Yellowstone that were discovered a year 
or two ago ? ” 

^^No.” 

‘‘Well, then, go to sleep, my unsophisticated 
infants,” said Captain Jack, with a patronising 
air, as he lay down again ; “ and if I ’m not 
mistaken you shall see to-morrow some of the 
most wonderful sights that are to be found in 
all the wide world.” 



CHAPTER IX 

SQUEAKY SCOKES ONE 

J ACK was right, both in his conclusion that 
our crooked course had carried us into 
the geyser basin and in his promise that we 
should see marvellous things. Next morning be- 
gan a week during which Percy and I went about 
with our eyes so wide open with astonishment 
that I wonder we ever managed to get them 
shut again. 

Immediately after breakfast we walked to 
the edge of the pine- wood and looked out over the 
little valley which lay below us. It was an im- 
pressive and rather an awe-inspiring sight, even 
by daylight. The valley was almost entirely 
covered by the white deposit I have mentioned ; 
whichever way one looked, up stream or down, 
he would see jets and clouds of steam rising in 
the sharp morning air ; while the throbbing, 
rumbling, hissing noises going on all around 


152 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

gave one an uncomfortable feeling that a great 
unknown power, which might break out at any 
moment and from any point, was lying in wait 
somewhere below the surface. 

Near the head of the valley, not very far re- 
moved from where we stood, was an extensive 
white mound, from which a pulf of steam now 
and then issued as if in warning that something 
was going to happen. Walking over to this 
mound and ascending it by a series of natural 
steps, we peered cautiously down the hole at 
the top. It was like looking down a rough- 
walled well, coated with coloured plaster. There 
was a growling and a grumbling going on down 
below, and presently, puff ! came a great ball of 
steam into our faces ; we thought our eyebrows 
were gone. With admirable unanimity we 
jumped back and retreated to a more respectful 
distance. 

Soon there was a great spasm, and a mass of 
hot water — tons of it — was jerked out of the 
crater. Percy and I, with one impulse, turned 
to fly, but Jack calling out, “ It ’s all right ; it ’s 
all right,” we stopped again ; standing, how- 
ever, all ready to run at the shortest notice. 

This casting out of hot water was but the 
preliminary to a regular eruption. It was fol- 


153 


Squeaky Scores One 

lowed by volumes of steam which — like the 
bolsters ” of the night before — were blown 
away by the wind ; next, a pillar of water about 
twenty feet high rose out of the orifice and 
sank down again ; and then the strange monster 
seemed to take a deep breath, and a roaring col- 
umn of water, five or six feet in diameter and a 
hundred and fifty feet high, as we judged, was 
ejected from the crater and stood erect, some- 
times rising a little, sometimes falling a little, 
for ten minutes. Gradually it subsided, sank 
down, stopped. The exhibition was over. 

None of us had said a word while this glori- 
ous display was in progress, — we were too full of 
wonder and admiration for speech, — nor did we, 
for a minute or two after it had ceased, break 
the silence. But then, Percy, suddenly stretch- 
ing out his hands, relieved his mind by 
apostrophising our old enemy of Moseley’s 
school. 

“ Bates,” he exclaimed, I forgive you ! 
Bates, I ’m much obliged to you ! If it had n’t 
been for you. Bates, my boy, I should never 
have seen this thing ; and it ’s worth — why, 
it ’s worth a year in jail to have seen it.” 

How we did chatter when once our tongues 
were loosened ! We were as proud of having 


154 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

come upon this wonderful region as if we had 
discovered it ourselves. 

It is a great temptation, and it would be very 
easy, to fill a chapter or two with descriptions 
of the marvels we saw in this truly astonishing 
country, — marvels at that time almost unknown 
to the world, — the many great geysers, and 
the thousands of hot springs of all sorts, sizes, 
and colours ; but I ]*efrain. It is enough to say 
that for a w^eek we three proud and happy ex- 
plorers went about in a state of chronic ecstasy 
and amazement ; a state from which I, for one, 
expect never entirely to recover. 

Much as we should have liked to prolong our 
stay, we remembered that ours was a business 
trip and not merely a sight-seeing excursion ; 
we had qualms of conscience, too, when we re- 
called how" long it was since we had been near 
a post-office ; and accordingly, one morning, we 
packed up our belongings and reluctantly rode 
away from the enchanted valley. 

We had gone but a short distance when we 
were startled by the sound of a jolly laugh issu- 
ing from the woods before us. With thoughts 
of Squeaky in our minds we cocked our rifles 
and stood waiting anxiously for whatever might 
turn up, when there rode into sight four horse- 


155 


Squeaky Scores One 

men, the leader of whom looked so very much 
more respectable than we did ourselves that our 
fears were at once allayed. 

We expected the strangers to be as much 
surprised to see us as we were to see them, but, 
strangely enough, they were not surprised at 
all. 

Good-morning, gentlemen,” said the leader, 
heartily. “I’m glad to see you. Where’s the 
Doctor ? ” 

“ What doctor ? ” asked Jack, wondering. 

“ What doctor ! Why, Doctor Hayden, of 
course. Don’t you belong to his party ? ” 

“ No sir,” replied Jack. “We don’t belong 
to any party. We are just travelling by our- 
selves.” 

“ Indeed ! ” said the gentleman, eying us as 
though he thought we were rather young to be 
doing anything of the sort. “ I supposed you 
belonged to Doctor Hayden’s branch of the 
Geological Survey, which is coming up from 
Bozeman ; we are expecting them any day. 
Which way are you travelling ? ” 

“ Why, we are not very particular, sir,” re- 
plied Jack, “but we want to get down to Boze- 
man pretty soon, that ’s all. Can you tell us 
which is the best way ? ” 


156 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

You may follow down the Firehole, here,” 
responded the stranger, “ or you may cut across 
country in that direction ” — pointing eastward 
— until you strike the Yellowstone, and follow 
that. By taking the latter course you would 
have the trail of the survey-party as a guide.” 

Thank you, sir. I think we ’ll go by way 
of the Yellowstone, then. Should we strike due 
east from here ? ” 

“Yes. Due east. Or you may bear north 
of east if you prefer ; you will save a little time 
by doing so.” 

“ Then we will go north-east, as we msh to 
get to Bozeman as quickly as possible. Is there 
any danger from Indians on the way, sir ? ” 

“ No ; I think not. But you will do well to 
look out for horse-thieves. They have a secret 
hiding-place somewhere about this country, and 
if they can run off your stock they will do so.” 

“We will take care, sir. And many thanks 
for your information. Now, you fellows [to 
us], right about face, and quick march ! ” 

At which command, waving our hands to the 
strangers, we turned our backs upon geyser- 
land and once more plunged into the woods. 

In the middle of the second day we came out 
into a fine, park-like stretch of country, and 


157 


Squeaky Scores One 

there, straight before us, ran a large, easy-flow- 
ing river, — the celebrated Yellowstone. 

Following along this handsome stream, stir- 
ring up flocks of wild ducks, and disturbing the 
snowy pelicans which were fishing in rows upon 
the banks, we came presently upon the trail of 
a large number of horses and mules going in the 
opposite direction. 

Good ! ” exclaimed Jack. Here ’s our guide 
to Bozeman. This is the trail of the survey- 
party, whom we must have passed in the woods 
sometime yesterday. With this trail and the 
river to steer by we ought to have no trouble in 
finding our way.” 

The discovery of this trail had a very cheer- 
ing effect upon us all. Not that we needed any 
cheering up, for our life in the wilds was, to 
Percy and me at least, the j oiliest time we had 
ever spent, but after “ wandering around loose ” 
so long, never knowing with any certainty just 
where we were, it was pleasant to feel that in 
the winding thread cast down here among the 
grass we had the beginning of the road home ; 
that by taking up this thread we might follow 
it to the great waters upon whose farther shore 
we should find, we were very sure, loving hands 
outstretched to welcome us. 


15 ^ The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

But if the finding of the trail was pleasant to 
us, there were two members of our party who, 
I almost believe, were still more delighted; 
namely, our faithful mules. Sober old Joe 
turned into it at once and pegged along with 
his usual businesslike air ; but Calliope, feeling 
that the occasion demanded a more emphatic 
expression of her satisfaction, lifted her head 
and sent forth so piercing a war-cry that the 
ducks and the pelicans fied squawking from the 
vicinity, the slumbering deer sprang startled to 
their feet, and even my Lord, the Grizzly, 
roused from his lair among the distant rocks, 
indignantly wondered what strange wild beast 
it might be that thus dared to molest his ancient, 
solitary reign. 

With merry chatter, and with pleasant 
thoughts of the folks at home, we jogged briskly 
along, camping that night on the verge of a 
magnificent chasm, which. Jack said, would 
some day be known all over the world as a sight 
to come and see. It was worthy of such a de- 
stiny ; for it was that splendid work of Nature, 
the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone, than which, 
as it seemed to me, there could be nothing un- 
der heaven more beautiful or more impressive. 

There was a threat of rain in the sky when, 


159 


Squeaky Scores One 

early next morning, we started out again upon 
our northward course. Soon the roughness of 
the country pushed us away from the river, and 
we found that the trail was leading us up over 
the shoulder of a big mountain, among whose 
rock-slides and ridges it was not always easy to 
follow it. As we ascended we shortly found 
ourselves among the clouds, and through their 
damp and chilly folds we urged our way, ever 
going up and up. Presently there was a grum- 
ble of thunder and the rain began to fall ; the 
rain soon changed to snow; so, slouching our 
hats over our eyes, and turning up the collars 
of our overcoats, we plodded on for an hour or 
more, until, suddenly and unexpectedly, we 
rode out of this premature winter into the glori- 
ous autumn sunshine. We were above the 
clouds. 

Towards the south and east, as far as we 
could see, was spread the dazzling white carpet, 
pierced in a thousand places by the mountain- 
peaks which lay like islands on a shining sea. 
Nowhere else on the continent, I should think, 
can there be so vast a number of mountains 
crowded into so small a space; and nowhere 
else are they more inextricably jumbled to- 
gether. It seems as though the mountain-chains 


i6o The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


which radiate from this common centre have 
here been pressed together and crumpled up ; 
the symmetry of their lines destroyed. This 
confused and intricate mass of mountains might 
very well be called “ The Cradle of the Rivers,” 
for from the snows which crown their heads 
issue three of the longest rivers of the United 
States : the Missouri, the Colorado, and the 
Snake. The rain-drops now falling from the 
clouds spread out beneath us might eventually 
find their way to the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf 
of California, or the Pacific Ocean. 

But while we were admiring the scene the 
clouds had gathered more heavily, and now we 
were treated to the interesting phenomenon of 
a smart thunder-storm going on beneath our 
feet. We could see the fiashes of lightning 
illumine the clouds, we could hear the booming 
and the banging of the thunder, and knowing 
no reason why we should descend into this tur- 
moil only to be wet through, we dismounted, 
and sat down in the sunshine to wait till it was 
over ; a novel situation for all of us. 

In the course of half an hour the storm be- 
gan to break, and great rifts appeared in the 
clouds through which we could look down into 
the wet valleys below. It reminded me of 


Squeaky Scores One 161 

pictures illustrating the spots on the sun. We 
were still sitting in the sun looking down 
through these rents in the cloud-carpet as they 
softly opened and closed, when Percy, seizing 
Jack by the arm, hastily exclaimed : 

Look, J ack ! Look ! Get your glass, quick ! ” 

He pointed downwards, and there we saw, 
going at a brisk trot across one of the little 
valleys a bunch of horses with two men riding 
behind them. 

Jack’s glass was out in a moment. 

Is it — ? ” Percy began, 
believe it is,” interrupted Jack, knowing 
very well what the question was going to be. 

Have a look yourself, and see if you recognise 
them.” 

“That’s the pair, I believe,” said Percy. 
“ Here, Tom, look quick, before they disappear. 
Should you know the horses again ? ” 

The gap in the clouds was closing rapidly, 
but I had time to get a good look at the 
cavalcade. 

“I can’t be quite certain,” said 1. “You 
can’t very well identify a man by the back of 
his neck, especially when he has his col- 
lar turned up ; but the number of loose 
horses is the same, and if the rider on the 


1 62 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


black horse is n’t Bates I ’m very much mis- 
taken.” 

‘^What are they doing here now?” asked 
Percy. I supposed they would have been far 
ahead of us by this time.” 

Perhaps they have been hiding in that 
secret place the gentleman spoke of,” J ack re- 
plied. Or perhaps the horses were worn 
out and they have been resting them up in 
some high part of the mountains where they 
could keep a good lookout for anyone coming 
after them. They seem to be in a good deal of 
a hurry at present, anyhow ; which is just as 
well, for they will make twenty miles to* our 
ten, and if they are bound for Bozeman — though 
I should hardly think they would go there — 
they will keep well ahead of us at that pace. 
It won’t do to trust to that, though. I think 
we must set a guard at night for the rest of the 
distance ; especially as they might even reach 
their destination, turn round again, and meet 
us on their way back, if they should return this 
way. And that, I think, is rather probable; 
for all those horses and mules of the survey- 
party must be a great temptation to gentlemen 
in their way of business.” 

This decision of the commander-in-chief met 


163 


Squeaky Scores One 

with our cordial approval, and for the next few 
days we moved cautiously forward, keeping a 
sharp lookout by day, and setting a guard at 
night. And a most unpleasant duty did we 
find it, after a long day’s march, to stand guard 
through the hours of darkness, when, by rights, 
we should have been asleep ; for, there being 
only three of us, and the nights being divided 
into two watches of four hours each, we could 
each secure but one clear night’s rest out of 
three — a great hardship to youngsters of our 
age. 

It will be readily understood, therefore, that 
we had no spare blessings to bestow upon 
Squeaky for putting us to all this extra trouble, 
and that it was with much pleasure we went 
into camp one evening, believing that two more 
days’ march, and consequently only one more 
night of guard-mounting, would bring us to our 
destination. 

We had unsaddled and turned loose the 
horses and mules that evening as usual ; Percy 
was on his knees, making the fire ; Jack, followed 
by Ulysses, had gone off to the creek for a 
bucket of water ; I was in the act of stooping 
to pick up my rifle preparatory to making a 
tour of our camping-ground, — for it was my 


164 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

first watch that night, — when a voice behind 
me said in a low but peremptory tone : 

^^Drop that!” 

I looked round sharply to find, pointed square 
at my chest, the muzzle of a rifie in the hands 
of a squat, red-haired man ; while another 
taller man was covering Percy. That their in- 
tentions were evil it was easy to guess, for each 
of them was disguised by wearing a strip of rag 
across the upper part of his face, having holes 
cut in it to look through. 

“ Come here ! ” said the short man in a low 
voice. “ Quick 1 Both of you.” ^ 

We advanced towards him. 

Sit down ! ” he commanded. 

Having no means of resisting, we sat down, 
side by side. 

^^Now, keep quiet,” said the man ; and turn- 
ing to the other he went on : Pardner, get 
behind them. If either of ’em moves, blow his 
head off.” 

This gentle hint was not lost upon us ; we sat 
silent and motionless while the red-haired man, 
slipping away among the trees, disappeared in 
the direction of the creek. In half a minute 
we heard his voice again ; there was some an- 
gry growling of old Ulysses, a few loud, sharp 



“ DROP THAT ! ” 




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i65 


Squeaky Scores One 

words, and directly afterwards Jack appeared, 
carrying a bucket of water in one hand and 
dragging Ulysses by the collar with the other ; 
urged upon his way by the persuasive influ- 
ence of a rifle, the muzzle of which was being 
held within two feet of the small of his back. 

“Tie up your dog,” said the man, “if you 
don’t want him shot; and then sit down by 
your friends.” 

Jack did so — and there we were, captured 
at last, in spite of our precautions. 

That our captors were Squeaky and Bates 
we had no doubt whatever. Squeaky’s voice 
would have betrayed him, even if we had had no 
previous suspicions. It was plain, from their 
wearing masks, that they wished to avoid I’e- 
cognition ; besides which. Bates, as an extra 
precaution, and evidently by preconcerted ar- 
rangement, was careful not to say a word, 
knowing that we should almost certainly recog- 
nise his voice. As someone, however, must issue 
orders, it fell to Squeaky to take that risk of 
being found out; he perhaps hoping that if 
we should notice his peculiar voice we should 
never think of connecting it with the man 
whom we had overheard in the dark in the 
little cabin by the railroad track away back in 


1 66 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


Nebraska. It must be remembered that neither 
of them was aware of the fact that we had 
knowledge of their presence in this part of the 
world. 

What ’s all this about ? ” asked Jack, with 
a great show of boldness, as soon as he was 
seated. ‘‘ And who are you ? ” he added, at 
the same time giving me a surreptitious nudge 
in the ribs, which I passed on to Percy. 

Jack, of course, knew very well that Squeaky 
would not give the desired information as to 
who they were ; he merely asked the question 
as a hint to iis to pretend we did not know 
them. 

I ’ll give you all the explanation I think 
proper after supper,” Squeaky replied. But 
there ’s one thing I want you to understand 
right now : if one of you tries to get up off 
the ground he won’t succeed ; he’ll be dead 
first. I mean it, mind you ; so you ’d better sit 
still if you don’t want a bullet through you.” 

As we had some knowledge of the peculiar- 
ities of our captor’s character we took his word 
for it, and having little doubt that he did mean 
it we sat still accordingly. Had we been deal- 
ing with Bates alone we might perhaps have 
made a fight for it ; he seemed to be nervous 


167 


Squeaky Scores One 

and agitated. But with Squeaky it was quite 
another matter. He had no nerves; and we 
felt pretty sure that if he should think it a good 
stroke of business to shoot one or all of us, no 
tenderness of conscience on his part would 
withhold him. 

“ Pardner,” said he, addressing Bates, “ round 
up those guns; stack ’em there against that 
tree, and take the cartridges out.” 

Bates did as commanded, always in silence, 
and then Squeaky said : 

That’s good. Now, you’d better go and 
bring down the horses. I ’ll hold the prisoners.” 

Bates retired into the woods, and in a quarter 
of an hour reappeared, riding the black horse 
and leading another, both of which he proceeded 
to picket in a little open space below the camp. 

Which of you boys is cook?” then asked 
the leader of this gang of two. 

I am,” replied Percy. 

All right. Get up, then, and cook supper 
for five. And don’t try any tricks. I’m a 
pretty good shot. Pardner, take your stand 
by the guns.” 

Percy rose to his feet, and for half an hour we 
sat still while he made tea and cooked steaks of 
deer-meat enough for us all. Bread we already 


1 68 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

had in plenty, for only the day before he had 
made a batch large enough to last us until our 
journey’s end, as he supposed. He had not 
reckoned upon entertaining two uninvited guests. 

Squeaky was a methodical rascal; we could 
not help admiring the orderly manner in which 
he conducted this alfair. He must have thought 
out all the details beforehand ; or else he had 
been engaged in a similar transaction on some 
previous occasion. As soon as the simple sup- 
per was ready he proceeded again to issue his 
orders. 

Cook,” said he, “ feed your friends.” 

Percy brought our suppers to Jack and me 
and set them down before us. 

Get your own share, and come and sit down 
again.” 

Percy did so. 

Pardner, help yourself.” 

We four having eaten our supper. Bates, at 
the command of his leader, once more took up 
his station behind us, while Squeaky helped 
himself to something to eat. Kneeling on his 
right knee, his rifle held ready for use in his 
left hand, he took a large piece of meat from 
the frying-pan, and holding it in his fingers he 
tore big fragments from it with his teeth ; all 


169 


Squeaky Scores One 

the time keeping his watchful little eyes upon 
us. He reminded me of the Mississippi steam- 
boat-mate, in that he resembled a dog engaged 
with a bone, who suspects that some other dog 
might like a share of it. 

“Now, cook,” said he, as he wiped his greasy 
fingers upon his trouser-leg, “you can wash up; 
I guess you may as well help him ” — nodding at 
me. 

“ Finished ? ” inquired the systematic villain, 
as soon as the culinary operations had been 
completed. “Well, then, just you sit down 
again, close together. I want to have a little 
talk with you. Pardner, stand a little way off 
from the end of the row, so as you can rake ’em 
if desirable.” 

Having made these dispositions. Squeaky up- 
turned our bucket and sat himself down upon 
it about ten feet away from us, his rifle across 
his knees and his finger on the triggei*, and thus 
addressed us : 

“ Well, boys, I ’m glad to see you at last. We’ve 
been looking for you for quite a spell, me and my 
pardner. We thought we ’d lost you. It was just 
a chance we see you coming along this evening, 
and decided to look you up. Hope you ’ve had 
a pleasant trip since you left Golconda.” 


1 70 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


Squeaky made this final remark with so evid- 
ent an expectation that we should be overcome 
with astonishment, that we hastened to accom- 
modate him by looking as surprised as we con^ 
veniently could at such short notice. 

What do you mean ? ” asked Jack. “ How 
do you know we came from Golconda ? We ’ve 
never met you before.” 

Oh, we know a thing or two, me and my 
pardner — eh, Pardner ? ” 

Bates nodded. 

We know who you are, well enough. Don’t 
we, Pardner?” 

Again Bates nodded. 

“Can’t your partner speak?” asked Jack, 
innocently. 

“ Born deef and dumb,” replied Squeaky, 
without the slightest hesitation. 

At this unexpected reply I forgot for the mo- 
ment the awkwardness of our present situation, 
and the fact that we did not wish to betray our 
knowledge of the identity of the enemy, and 
began to laugh, when Jack, by a monitory pinch, 
brought me up again with a jerk. 

“ What are you laughing at ? ” asked Squeaky, 
scowling. 

I became preternatu rally solemn in an instant; 


Squeaky Scores One 171 

and by good fortune I thought of a reasonable 
reply to the question. 

“ Why,” said I, I was only thinking that 
your partner seemed to understand pretty well 
for a man born deaf.” 

‘^Yes, he does that,” assented Squeaky, in 
such a matter-of-fact manner that I nearly 
laughed again. 

Well,” he continued, “we must get to busi- 
ness, because we won’t have any time to-morrow 
morning. Now, just listen to me, and you,” 
— pointing at Jack, — “you just pay attention ; 
because the lives of these two boys depends on 
you. Just you keep that in mind, now. This 
is no laughing matter, you ’ll find, young fellow,” 
with a grim nod at me. “ I ’m going to tell you 
what me and my pardner have been hunting 
you for ; and mind you, I mean what I say.” 

Squeaky hitched his bucket a trifle nearer, 
and shaking his forefinger at Jack he thus ad- 
dressed him, slowly and with much emphasis : 

“ Attend to me, now,” said he. “ To-morrow 
morning you ’ll take your horse, and you ’ll ride 
to Bozeman — you can make it by night if you 
start early — and as soon as you get to Bozeman 
you ’ll telegraph to the fathers of these boys to 
send you ten thousand dollars.” 


172 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

He paused for a moment to let his words 
take full effect, and then went on : 

As soon as you get the money you ’ll ride 
back here with it alone, and you’ll go to the 
top of that flat-topped rock up there on the 
end of that rise — See it ? You may stand up 
if you can ’t.” 

I see it,” said Jack. “ Well ? ” 

^Wou’ll bring the money with you, you’ll 
go to that flat-topped rock, and you’ll build a 
big Are of green boughs on it so as to make a 
big smoke. We shall see your smoke, ’cause 
we shall be looking out for it, and my pardner 
here will come down to the rock, and you ’ll 
follow him to the place where me and these 
two boys’ll be. Then you’ll turn over the 
money to me, and you and the boys can go 
where you like.” 

We had little inclination to laugh now, and 
still less as Squeaky went on. 

We ’ll give you time enough, — say, ten 
days. That ’ll allow for accidents. We ’ll look 
out for your smoke on the ninth and tenth days. 
If there ’s no smoke by sunset of the tenth 
day — remember ! sunset of the tenth day — I’ll 
shoot the boys, and you need n’t trouble to 
come at all. 


173 


Squeaky Scores One 

“ There ; that ’s your part of the business. 
Do you understand what you’ve got to do? 
or shall I tell you all over again ? I ’ll tell you 
as often as you like ; because a mistake is likely 
to prove fatal.” 

“ I understand,” said Jack. “ But ” 

^^Hold up a bit,” interrupted Squeaky; I 
have n’t quite done yet. As soon as you leave 
to-morrow morning we shall go off to a hiding- 
place I know of. It won’t do you any good 
to bring a sheriff and posse to hunt for us ; 
you could n’t find the place in a thousand years 
unless it was by accident. If you should take 
the fancy to try the experiment — well, we shall 
know of it, and the effect is likely to be injuri- 
ous to the health of your two friends here. 
You won ’t find us ; we shall be gone. And so 
will the boys — only they ’ll be gone to the 
place that nobody ever comes back from. 

“ That ’s all I ’ve got to say. You know 
what you ’ve got to do ; and you know the 
consequences if you fail. It’s just a plain 
business deal. We have two boys for sale at 
ten thousand dollars the pair. If anyone wants 
them, they can have ’em. If not ” 

He finished his sentence with a grim nod, 
and a significant pat upon the stock of his rifle. 



CHAPTER X 

THE VALLEY OF THE MUSHROOAt ROOK 

W E were far from laughing now. The 
calm, everyday tone in which Squeaky 
had uttered the words, I shall shoot the boys,” 
together wdth what we knew of his character, 
convinced us that no mercy was to be expected 
of him ; and we trembled. Griancing at my 
companions to see how they took it, I observed 
that I was likely to get little comfort from 
them. Percy was sitting with his eyes unnat- 
urally wide open, staring at Squeaky without 
a wink; while Jack’s lips were tight shut, and 
his face, I could see, was quite pale beneath the 
sunburn. 

When I saw how much troubled Jack was I 
became more alarmed than ever ; for Jack was 
far more likely than I to be able to appreciate 
correctly the seriousness of our position. Be- 
sides which, not having been threatened him- 
174 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 175 

self, his fear, of course, was all on our account ; 
and when I thought of that I became cold all 
over. 

I knew that the generous fellow would be 
taking all the blame to himself if any harm 
should befall us two, and at that thought 
another fear drove out the old one. I was 
afraid he might attempt something desperate 
for our release. 

I can never be thankful enough that that 
idea occurred to me in time. Even as I thought 
of it I heard a rustle in the grass, and I saw 
that Jack, who had been sitting with his elbows 
on his knees, had drawn one foot beneath him 
and had placed one hand upon the ground, all 
ready for a spring at Squeaky. It would have 
been madness to make the attempt; and with- 
out a second’s hesitation I flung my arms around 
him, crying, ‘^No, Jack, you sha’ n’t !” 

Very well, old chap, I won’t,” he whispered 
in my ear, with a rather husky voice ; and at 
this assurance I sat up again, still holding him 
by the arm, however. 

Squeaky had sprung to his feet, and, covering 
Jack with his rifle, he said, quietly, “ I would n’t 
if I was you.” 

don’t intend to,” replied Jack ; whereupon 


17 ^ The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

our captor sat down again, and Percy, who had 
half risen, sank back upon the grass. 

It was a rather curious fact, and it showed 
the comparative estimate in which we held our 
two enemies, that, had the rush come, all three 
of us would have gone straight at Squeaky, en- 
tirely forgetful of Bates ; though, had we known 
it, Bates was at that moment quite as dangerous 
as his leader, perhaps more so, for he was hold- 
ing his rifle pointed in our direction, and he was 
trembling so that its unintended explosion was 
more than a possibility. 

The temporary excitement of this incident 
having abated, our captain once more assumed 
his former position, and, addressing Squeaky, 
said : 

Look here, Mr. — Mr. ” 

“ Never mind names,” interrupted the other. 

‘ Mister ’ is good enough.” 

Jack nodded. All right,” said he. “Then, 
Mister, I have one or two things to say. First : 
Ten thousand dollars is too much.” 

“ No, it is n’t,” Squeaky promptly contradicted. 
“ Me and my pardner has means of knowing the 
financial standing of these boys’ fathers, and we 
have fixed upon that amount. We ’re not 
going to ’bate as much as a ten-cent shinplas- 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 177 

ter, so you need n’t waste your breath on that 
point.” 

Jack nodded again! “Well,” said he, “then 
there ’s another point. Ten days is much too 
short a time.” 

“ No, it is n’t,” interposed Squeaky, firmly. 

“ Yes, it is,” Jack repeated, with equal firm- 
ness. “ Just consider a minute. It will take 
me one long day to get to Bozeman; if my 
horse should fall lame — he has no shoes — it 
would take two. It might take me two to get 
back. There are four days out of my ten. 
Then the boys’ parents may not be at home; 
they may be travelling on the continent of 
Europe, and it may take them two or three 
days to get home ; besides which, ten thousand 
dollars is a very considerable sum, and it may 
take them several days to raise it.” 

I thought Squeaky seemed to be impressed ; 
and I thought, too, how clever Jack was to 
think of all this when his thinking faculties had 
just received such a shaking-up. But Jack had 
not finished yet ; he had reserved his most tell- 
ing argument for the last. 

“ There ’s one thing more,” he went on. “ You 
want this money in cash, I suppose. Well, do 
you think the town of Bozeman could get to- 

12 


17 ^ The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

getber ten thousand dollars on the spur of the 
moment? Of course it can’t. The money will 
probably have to come up from Salt Lake City 
by stage, and that, as you know, will take four 
or five days itself. Your ten days’ limit is ab- 
sui-d ; you ’ll beat yourself if you stick to that. 
You ought to make it a month.” 

I half expected that Squeaky would be of- 
fended at Jack’s emphatic manner of speech, 
but I was mistaken. 

“ You ’re a smart chap,” said he, admiringly. 
‘‘ That sounds like a sensible argument. Shut 
up, now, and let me think about it.” 

After sitting for some time with his chin in 
his hand, frowning at the landscape, the chief 
bandit straightened himself up upon his bucket 
and delivered his final decision. 

We ’ll give you three weeks,” said he. 
“ That will allow plenty of time for accidents 
and delays. Two days each way for you to ride 
to Bozeman and back. That ’s four. Ten days 
for the people on the other side to raise the 
money and send it out. That ’s two weeks. One 
whole week for the money to come up from Salt 
Lake. That ’s three weeks. You ’ll be back here 
with the money in three weeks. If you don’t get 
here by then — well, I need n’t go over all that 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 179 

again. You know what ’ll happen if you don’t, 
that ’s all. So, now we ’ve got it all comfortably 
arranged, we ’ll go to bed.” 

Squeaky here arose, and, taking up his old 
position behind us, said : 

Here, you, — no, not the cook, the other one, 
— get up and bring all your blankets.” 

Seeing that I was the other one ” alluded 
to, I brought the blankets and threw them down 
in a heap. 

Make your bed,” was the next command. 

I did so. 

Roll yourself up tight.” 

I obeyed. 

Now then, next one, do the same; close to 
number one.” 

Percy, and after him Jack, followed my ex- 
ample, and in ten minutes we were lying side 
by side, tightly encased in our wrappings, like 
three cocoons. It was an excellent arrangement 
from Squeaky’s point of view, for it was im- 
possible to rise in a hurry. 

“Now, Pardner,” he continued, “I’ll go to 
bed myself. You shall take the first watch. 
Wake me at midnight. If any of the prisoners 
tries to get up, you know what you ’ve got to 
do : shoot first, and inquire into it afterwards.” 


i8o The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


The head jailer then went to bed, taking his 
rifle with him, and Bates, having placed the up- 
turned bucket about ten feet beyond our heads, 
sat down upon it and commenced his solitary 
vigil. 

I was too much troubled to sleep, and I sur- 
mised that my companions were in the same 
condition, for I could feel that Percy, who lay 
in the middle, was fldgeting and squirming 
about, and now and then I could see Jack’s 
head move. The night wore on, the fire died 
down and ceased to pop and crackle, and pre- 
sently a new sound began to make itself heai’d, 
— a mixed sound of snorting and choking. It 
was Squeaky, snoring. 

Directly afterwards there was a rustle among 
the grass, followed by a sound of whispering, 
and turning my face in that direction I was 
surprised to see Bates on one knee whispering 
something in Jack’s ear. He had given up be- 
ing deaf and dumb, — for the moment at any rate. 

Jack listened without moving, and then, in 
low, eager tones, appeared to be making some 
request. Whatever it was. Bates replied in 
the negative, shaking his head emphatically, 
and rising to his feet again he returned to his 
bucket. 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock i8i 

Jack, however, apparently made a motion as 
if to rise, for Bates, in a hasty, anxious manner, 
said, under his breath, “ Lie down ; or I shall 
have to shoot”; upon which Jack lay still 
again. 

Presently I heard more whispering, and the 
next thing was that Percy turned toward me 
and said softly : 

“ Tom. Awake ? ” 

Yes.” 

Bates says lie won’t let him shoot us.” 

Oh, excellent Bates ! If it had not been too 
dangerous an experiment to attempt I would 
have jumped up and shaken hands with him. 
Under the circumstances, however, I thought it 
better to refrain. Percy went on : 

Jack asked him to let us go ; but he dare n’t. 
Squeaky would shoot him.” 

At this moment Squeaky gave suck a snort 
that he woke himself up, and I heard him say. 
All right, Pardner ? ” To which Bates, as it 
was no use to nod in the dark, replied aloud, 
“All right.” 

“ I guess you may as well turn in,” Squeaky 
continued. “It isn’t midnight yet, but I’ve 
had sleep enough, and you want more than I 
do, anyway.” 


i 82 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


Needless to say, we three lay as still as mice 
while this change was being effected, pretend- 
ing to be asleep, and my mind being greatly 
relieved by Bates’s assurance that we should not 
be shot, my simulated sleep soon turned into 
the real thing, and I did not move again until 
Squeaky’s unpleasant voice aroused me next 
morning to a sense of our situation. 

In the same systematic manner in which he had 
directed affairs the previous evening, Squeaky 
superintended the cooking of the breakfast and 
the saddling and packing of the horses and 
mules. Before that operation was completed, 
however. Jack requested that his rifle be re- 
stored to him. “I might need it,” said he; 
“ especially coming back with the money.” 

That ’s a fact,” replied Squeaky. Yes, 
you may take your rifle and cartridge-belt. 
You need n’t load just yet, though.” 

“ There ’s another thing,” said Jack. “ I 
want the correct addresses of these boys’ 
parents.” 

All right,” Squeaky assented. “ Hurry up, 
though.” 

Jack produced a pencil and a scrap of paper, 
wrote down the addresses, and handed the paper 
to Percy. 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 183 

“ Is that all correct?” he asked. 

“ All correct,” replied Percy, in a rather pe- 
culiar voice as I thought, passing the paper 
over to me. 

If there was anything peculiar in the tone of 
Percy’s reply, the reason for it was in my hand ; 
for, at the bottom of the paper. Jack had 
written, “ I ’ll put in two or three days track- 
ing you, if you say so.” 

Perfectly correct,” said I, handing the paper 
back to him, and looking hard at him, mean- 
while, that he might understand I referred par- 
ticularly to the last line. 

‘‘Very well,” said Jack. “Then I’m ready 
to start. I ’ll take something to eat with me, if 
you please, as I may not get in to-night.” 

He pocketed some bread and meat, untied 
Ulysses, mounted Toby, and, turning to us, said 
cheerfully, “ Good-bye, you fellows. Keep up 
your spirits. I ’ll see you safely out of this; 
don’t you be afraid.” Then, turning to Squeaky, 
he said abruptly, “ Say five thousand.” 

“ Ten,” replied Squeaky, with equal abrupt- 
ness, “ or you need n ’t come at all. And no 
tricks, mind you. It ’s dangerous for the boys.” 

Jack nodded. “Twenty-one days from to- 
day, then. Good-bye.” 


1 84 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

Waving his hand, away he rode; Ulysses, 
who could not understand why he should have 
been tied up all night, running and leaping 
joyously before him. 

For half an hour we stood watching our 
captain, until we saw him, against the sky-line 
of a distant hill, turn and wave his hand as he 
disappeared over the brow. Then, and not till 
then. Squeaky gave the order to mount. 

It was not a very hilarious procession that 
set out that morning from our late camping- 
place. First rode the speechless Bates, then 
came the two mules, who were, after their 
fashion, as uneasy at the de[)arture of Toby as 
we were at the departure of Toby’s master, 
and lastly came Squeaky, who, that we might 
not from ignorance run any needless risks, had 
significantly informed us that any attempt on 
our part to swerve to the right or left would 
result in a bullet in the back. 

For half a day we rode slowly but steadily 
upwards, until, having passed through the pine- 
woods, we came out upon a long, bare ridge, 
connecting two mountain peaks. Ascending to 
the crest of this stony, wind-swept “ hog-back,” 
upon whose hard surface the hoofs of our 
animals left no trace whatever, we presently 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 185 

found our further progress barred by a little 
precipice some thirty or forty feet high which 
ran the whole length of the ridge from one 
peak to the other. It was plain we could not 
jump down there, but unless we had come to 
the end of our journey we could not see what 
else we were expected to do. 

At this point, whence we could see a long 
stretch of the Yellowstone Valley behind us. 
Squeaky ordered us to stop, and taking Jack’s 
field-glass, which he had appropriated to his 
own use, he examined the trail by which we 
had come up and all the country about with 
the greatest minuteness. Evidently he had a 
suspicion that Jack might be following. Our 
hearts were in our mouths while this examin- 
ation was going on, and great was our relief 
when at length Squeaky put up the glass, and 
turning to Bates gruffly ordered him to go on. 

Bates swerved to the left, and continued 
along the ridge until he had come near the 
foot of one of the peaks, — an unscaleable mass 
of rocks. In spite of our anxiety, Percy and 
I could not help feeling interested in the pro- 
blem as to where we were to go now. With a 
precipice on the right and an impassable mount- 
ain in front of us it seemed as though the 


1 86 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


only course remaining would be to turn still 
more to the left and descend again into the valley. 

But Bates knew what he was about ; he had 
been here before. He turned down-hill for a 
short distance, and, threading his way between 
numbers of great rocks which had rolled down 
from the mountain, he presently entered a 
narrow chasm — so narrow that the mules with 
their loads had barely room to pass — and began 
to go steeply down-hill. 

For ten minutes we scrambled down this 
dry watercourse, the walls on either side be- 
coming higher and higher as we descended, 
until presently we heard the splashing of water, 
and looking ahead we, saw a shallow stream 
rushing madly past the mouth of our gully. 
Anived at the edge of this stream we found 
that immediately on our left it fell foaming in 
a miniature cascade into a pool a hundred feet 
below, while from the right it came tearing 
down its smooth stone bed like a mill-race. 
Straight before us towered a blank wall of rock. 

“ Which way now ? ” I said softly to Percy ; 
for the gully had here Avidened out, and I had 
resumed my place beside him. 

^‘Up the bed of the stream, I suppose,” he 
replied. “ There ’s no other way.” 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 187 

Percy was right; for Bates without hesita- 
tion entered the water, which, fortunately, was 
no more than a mere sheet an inch deep, and 
began slowly to clamber up the slope. 

Happening at this moment to glance upward, 
I noticed, on the edge of the cliff exactly above 
my head, a great wedge-shaped rock which 
looked so very much as though it were on the 
point of falling down that instinctively I 
pressed forward to get past the danger-point. 
As I did so, Percy, who was slightly in the rear 
of me, whispered hastily : 

‘‘Tom; hold back. Let me get in front of 
you. I have a shotgun cartridge in my pocket, 
and I want to drop it near the water as a guide 
to Jack, in case he should be able to trail us 
this far.” 

“ All i*ight,” said I, without looking round ; 
and forging ahead he succeeded in dropping 
the cartridge without exciting the suspicions of 
our watchful guard ; with great circumspection 
making it appear that he was intent only upon 
urging the reluctant mules to follow Bates’s 
horse. 

After a short upward climb between over- 
hanging walls, we turned a corner and saw 
before us the low, arching mouth of a cave, 


1 88 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

whose floor, as far as we could see, was entirely 
covered by a pool of water, the source, un- 
doubtedly, of the stream in which we stood. 

Into this gloomy den rode Bates, the mules 
following, and Percy and I, side by side again, 
behind them. The depth of the water appeared 
to be about three feet, and as the darkness of 
the cave increased it was by the splashing of 
the mules alone that we were able to tell which 
way to go. 

‘‘Tom,” whispered Percy, when it had be- 
come so dark that we could no longer see each 
other, “Tom, here’s our chance. Let us slip 
off and sit down in the water until Squeaky has 
passed us.” 

“ All right,” said I. “ Now ? ” 

“Yes, now.” 

But Squeaky frustrated our design. As if he 
had been suspecting some such move on our 
part, the wily rascal, at the very moment when 
I had freed my feet from the stirrups, struck a 
match, and holding it aloft, said : 

“ No tricks, now, boys.” 

He was a sharp fellow, if he was a bad one. 

As soon as that match burned out he struck 
another and another, until the appearance of 
daylight before us — for the cave turned out to 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 189 

be merely a natural tunnel — rendered such 
precautions no longer necessary. 

Emerging again from beneath the arched 
rogf, we found ourselves in a second dry water- 
course, enclosed like the other by high perpen- 
dicular walls. Evidently the springs which fed 
the pool were strong enough to send the water 
down this way also when the snow-banks were 
melting on the mountains in the early summer. 
Along this deep cleft we made our way for half 
an hour, going sharply down-hill all the time, 
until, at a point where the rocks came more than 
usually close together, we were stopped by an 
unexpected barriei*, — a set of bars such as form 
the entrance of a corral. As soon as Percy saw 
these bars he whispered to me, ^^The horse- 
thieves’ hiding-place.” 

I had no doubt that Percy was right, espec- 
ially as we saw beyond the barrier, on a natural 
shelf some six feet from the ground, a stone-built 
fortification large enough to hold a dozen men, 
loopholed for rifles, and so placed as to command 
the steep slope we had just descended. 

Passing the bars, which Bates let down and 
Squeaky set up again, we turned a corner to find 
that the passage suddenly terminated, and that 
we had come into the upper end of a very re- 


190 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


markable little valley, in the bottom of which 
several horses were feeding, — the stolen horses, 
we had no doubt. 

But it was the valley I'ather than the horses 
which claimed our attention. It must have 
been, I believe, the crater of an ancient volcano, 
— there are many of them in that country, — 
which in the course of thousands of years had 
been nearly filled up by the debris falling from 
the surrounding peaks. The bottom of the val- 
ley consisted of a beautiful smooth meadow, 
some two miles long by a mile in width. Around 
this meadow were high banks composed of earth 
and fragments of stone, thickly covered with 
pine-trees, while behind the trees, encircl- 
ing the whole valley, was a wall of rock from 
fifty to a hundred feet high. As far as we 
could see, the wall was without a break, except- 
ing only that at its northern, or right-hand, end 
it was split from top to bottom ; the split form- 
ing a narrow gap through which a voluminous 
stream went boiling and foaming over the 
stones. The stream was much larger than one 
would expect from the limited size of the valley, 
but we observed that at least six little waterfalls 
— and how many more we did not know — came 
pouring over the edge of the valley wall, hav- 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 19 1 

ing their sources in the mountains which on 
every side rose high above the rim of the wall 
itself. 

To all appearance there was no way in or out 
of the horse-thieves’ hiding-place save through 
the passage by which we had come down, unless, 
possibly, one might pass down the gorge where 
the stream ran out. 

That the elevation of the old crater was 
pretty considerable was evident from the fact 
that, though the slopes below the wall were 
well wooded, the mountains above were bare, or 
nearly so, a few stunted, twisted trees growing 
here and there among the rocks showing plainly 
enough that we were but a short distance below 
timber-line. 

As soon as we had descended through the 
fringe of trees which bordered the grass-land, 
we descried upon the opposite side of the valley 
a little, roughly built cabin, standing with its 
back to the wall and its face toward us; a 
wretched little hovel, with a stumpy stone chim- 
ney and a doorway without any door. Behind 
the cabin rose a fine peak from whose sides 
there had fallen so large a heap of loose rocks 
as to make it appear that at that one point 
perhaps it might be possible to climb out of the 


192 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


valley. Percy quietly called my attention to 
the fact as we rode across the meadow. 

Beside a stream which came down from this 
peak, and not very far removed from the cabin, 
there stood an object which at once attracted 
our attention, — a rock of very peculiar shape. 
It was like a gigantic mushroom, forty feet high ; 
the stalk, which must have been thirty feet 
thick, constituting about half of the total height, 
while the cap, projecting on all sides far be- 
yond the stalk, must have been more than twice 
as wide as the latter. Indeed, considering how 
much the cap overhung, and considering, more- 
over, that it was split in two across the middle, 
it was a wonder to us that it did not fall off ; 
one would think that a good stiff breeze might 
blow it down. 

Having traversed the little valley at its upper 
end, we drew up before the cabin, and there 
dismounted. By command of Squeaky, Percy 
and I unsaddled the horses and unpacked the 
mules, — which at once wandered off to fraternise 
with the strange horses, they, with equal curi- 
osity having galloped up to see who we were, — 
during which operation Bates busied himself by 
cutting a supply of fii*ewood, while the vigilant 
Squeaky kept watch and ward over us. 


Valley of the Mushroom Rock 193 

After a hearty supper, which Percy and I 
cooked, and of which, in spite of our unpleasant 
situation, we ate a very fair share, we were or- 
dered into the cabin for the night. Our blan- 
kets were thrown upon the floor, and a fire of 
big logs was started in the fireplace. 

“ That ’ll help to keep you warm,” remarked 
our captor, and it ’ll keep you from trying to 
climb out by the chimney,” — an idea which had 
occurred to both of us the moment we entered 
the hovel. 

Squeaky next took an elk-hide, and, extract- 
ing the nails from several old horseshoes which 
lay about, he pegged the hide over the door- 
way, thus shutting us in completely. 

^^Now, boys,” said he, from the other side of 
the hide, “ you can go to bed whenever you like. 
Don’t try to get out. One of us will be on 
guard all the time and if we hear you trying to 
scratch out we shall just fire through the door- 
way or through the chinks, and you ’ll have to 
take your chance of being hit. So take my ad- 
vice, and go to bed like good boys. Good- 
night.” 

13 



CHAPTER XI 

A COUNTER-STROKE 

I T was all very well for Squeaky to recom- 
mend us to go to bed ; we had something 
else to do first, namely, to talk over the situa- 
tion. The possibility of escape was naturally 
the first subject to be discussed. 

“ I don’t «ee any chance of it at present,” said 
Percy. But perhaps, after we have been here 
a few days, if we don’t show any desire to get 
away, they may become less vigilant and we 
may find an opportunity. If Squeaky for any 
reason should go away and leave Bates in 
charge, that wouM be our best chance. We 
might tackle Bates — I ’m not very much afraid 
of him — but I am afraid of Squeaky, most 
decidedly afraid.” 

“ So am I,” I responded. “ I ’m pretty certain 
he would kill us if he thought proper, and 
though Bates might try to prevent him I ’m not 
so sure that he could do so. If Jack ” 


194 


A Counter-Stroke 


195 


^^Sh!” whispered Percy, tapping me upon 
the knee, and pointing with his thumb toward the 
doorway. There was a rustle in the grass, and 
the sound of breathing close to the elk-hide. 
Somebody was listening. 

Jack is sure to be back in three weeks,” 
Percy announced in an audible voice for the 
benefit of the listener. “ Three weeks ought to 
be ample time, and you may be sure he won’t 
let the grass grow under his feet. As for our- 
selves, as there ’s no chance that I see of getting 
out of this place, the best thing we can do is to 
make ourselves as comfortable as we can while 
we stay here.” 

You are right,” I replied. That ’s the best 
thing to do. Your father and mine will cert- 
ainly pay rather than have us killed, and these 
men probably know that. If it should take more 
than three weeks to get the money out. Jack 
will come and say so, and they will give him 
the extra time necessary; they will hardly be 
such idiots as to kill us when they might get a 
thousand pounds apiece by keeping us alive.” 

‘‘That’s true,” said Percy. “ Well, since we 
are agreed to make the best of it, let us begin 
at once by going to bed.” 

With that we arose and proceeded to make 


196 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


the beds, keeping our ears cocked meanwhile 
toward the door. Percy winked at me when 
once more we heard the swishing among the 
grass which announced the retreat of the spy. 

The night passed without incident, and very 
early next morning Squeaky unbuttoned the 
door and commanded us to come out. Both he 
and Bates were still wearing their masks; 
whether they slept in them or not I cannot say. 

Pardner,” said the former, as soon as we ap- 
peared, ^‘you may as well go and bring up my 
horse. Cook, start the breakfast. You other, 
chop some wood.” 

We set about our allotted tasks ; but presently 
Percy, pointing to an empty bucket, remarked : 

“ I have n’t any water.” 

Go and get some, then,” said Squeaky ; but 
as Percy picked up the bucket he added, You 
other, go with him. It ’s easier to keep an eye 
on you while you are both together. You ’ll 
find a place down by that rock,” pointing to the 
mushroom rock, which stood about fifty or sixty 
yards away. 

Leaving our warder watching us, rifle in hand, 
we walked down to the spot indicated. The 
little creek, we found, had cut for itself a 
groove in the stone floor of the valley, and just 


A Counter-Stroke 


197 


below the rock was a little waterfall about a 
foot high, very convenient for filling a bucket. 
As Percy stooped for the purpose, he suddenly 
checked himself, and exclaimed in a quick 
whisper : 

Tom, Tom ! Look there ! ” 

Following the direction of his gaze — for he 
dared not point — I saw, just above the little 
cascade, a round, basin-like pot-hole in the stone 
bed of the creek, and in it, lying upon a layer 
of very black sand, a yellow lump resembling in 
size and shape a soldier’s button. 

“ Is Squeaky looking ? ” whispered Percy. 

“ Yes,” said I, glancing out of the corners of 
my eyes at our guard. 

Without any further delay Percy filled the 
bucket and rose again, but as he straightened up 
he said softly : 

It ’s gold ! I ’m going to upset the bucket 
and come back. Stand between me and 
Squeaky when I do so.” 

All right,” said I. 

With an admirable imitation of naturalness, 
Percy, when we had covered half the return 
distance, caught his toe against a root and fell 
upon his face, sending the water all over my 
legs and filling my boots so that they went 


igS The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


squish-squish when I hopped about, which I did 
with a naturalness in which there was no imi- 
tation ; it was perfectly genuine ; so genuine that 
Squeaky burst into a loud guffaw at the sight. 

Percy at once arose, threw out the remnant 
of water, and walked straight back to the creek, 
while I interposed my body between him and 
Squeaky as best I could. He soon returned, 
and walking up to the camp-fire without look- 
ing at me set down the bucket ; but I observed 
that his right coat-sleeve was soaked, and as the 
corner of one pocket showed a wet stain I felt 
pretty sure that he had the nugget safely in 
that pocket. 

Anxious as we were to get together in order 
that we might talk over this surprising find, we 
had no opportunity just then, and events fol- 
lowed each other so quickly immediately af- 
terwards that, impossible though it may seem, 
we actually forgot all about the nugget until 
several days later. 

It will naturally be supposed that any events 
which could make us forget so notable ah occur- 
rence as the discovery of gold after all our 
fruitless searching must be events of some im- 
portance, and that they were so I shall, I be- 
lieve, be able soon to show. 


A Counter-Stroke 


199 


Breakfast was no sooner over than Squeaky, 
turning to us, said : 

‘‘Boys, I’m going for a bit of a ride this 
morning up to the hog-back. I want to see 
that your friend has n’t taken a notion to follow 
us. My pardner, here, will stand guard over 
you while I ’m gone.” 

Here was news ! Here was the head jailer 
about to give us the very opportunity we 
had been hoping for ! I was afraid to look 
at my fellow-prisoner for fear I should be un- 
able to restrain my inclination to wink at him. 
My exultation, however, was short-lived, for 
Squeaky went on : 

“ But he ’s a tender-hearted sort of chap, is 
my pardner, and he might make some bones 
about shooting you if you tried to get away, so 
I ’m afraid I ’ll have to tie you up for a couple 
of hours. You ’re valuable property, you see- 
and I can’t afford to lose you.” 

This announcement was not so pleasant. I 
wondered if Squeaky could possibly have over- 
heard us speaking of our chances of escape if 
he should leave us in charge of Bates. Prob- 
ably not. It is more likely that his natural 
acuteness led him to suspect that we might 
make the attempt if only he himself were out 


200 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


of the way. This time, though, he was not 
quite sharp enough. My quick-witted chum 
very cleverly stole a march on him. 

I was on my knees at the time, washing up; 
Percy was kneeling beside me drying the things 
with our own private dish-rag; while Bates 
stood a little distance off saddling a horse — not 
the same horse, I noticed, that Squeaky had 
ridden the day before. Percy also noted this 
fact, and, with a presence of mind I have never 
ceased to admire, he took instant advantage of 
it. Nodding his head toward Bates he re- 
marked in a casual manner : 

“ Is n’t he saddling the wrong horse ? ” 

The remark caused Squeaky to turn his head, 
and in that brief instant Percy slipped the 
knife he happened to be wiping into his high 
boot, snatched up another, and in a perfectly 
unconcerned manner went on rubbing away 
with the dish-rag. 

No,” said our unsuspecting proprietor, “ he ’s 
all right. Come, hurry up. I ’ve no time to 
waste.” 

Our task completed. Squeaky instructed Bates 
to cut off a length from one of our picket-ropes, 
which being done he unravelled the piece, and 
taking a couple of strands he. tied Percy’s arms 


A Counter-Stroke 


201 


behind him just above the elbows. Having 
performed the same office for me, he stood for a 
while contemplating the result. 

“Put your hands in front of you,” he com- 
manded. 

We obeyed, to find that our finger-tips would 
just meet. Squeaky shook his head. 

“ Won’t do,” said he. “You might untie each 
other. I may as well make a good job of it 
while I ’m about it. It ’ll be a bit uncomfort- 
able, but it won’t be for very long. I guess 
you ’ll have to stand it.” 

With that he took two more strands of the 
rope, and tied our wrists together behind us. 
Once more he examined his handiwork, and this 
time appeared to be satisfied. 

“ That ’ll do,” said he. “ Now get into your 
cabin.” 

Having driven us in, like a couple of sheep, 
he fastened the hide over the doorway, and left 
us, with the information that he would be back 
in about two hours ; unless, indeed, he should 
happen to get sight of Jack prowling around, in 
which case it might take him another two 
hours to stalk and shoot him. It was a horrid 
suggestion, expressed in his usual matter-of-fact 
way, and we did not doubt he meant it. It 


202 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


filled us with anxiety. We heartily wished we 
had never consented to Jack’s proposition that 
he should try to follow our trail. Our only 
comfort was in the thought that Jack was fully 
aware of the risk he ran, and that he would take 
every precaution — for our sakes as well as his 
own. 

Standing close to the doorway, listening in- 
tently, we heard Squeaky giving instructions to 
Bates, and directly afterwards the clatter of 
hoofs proclaimed that he had ridden off. 

Tom,” Percy hastily whispered, at the same 
time going down upon his knees, get up on my 
shoulders, quick.” 

The reason for this seemingly senseless request 
was that, the elk-hide being too short to cover the 
whole of the doorway, there was a gap of three 
inches at the top through which one might look 
out if he could reach high enough. Following 
Percy’s instructions, I bestrode his neck, and he 
then rose carefully to his feet ; no easy task for 
either of us, considering that we were deprived 
of the use of our hands. For Percy it was es- 
pecially difficult, but fortunately he was very 
stout on his pins, and after one or two preliminary 
wabbles which threatened to send me headlong 
to the floor, he succeeded in standing upright. 


A Counter-Stroke 


203 


For five minutes he thus supported me, while 
I watched Squeaky as he rode across the open, 
entered the strip of woods, appeared again on 
the other side, and vanished into the gorge, 
when I whispered, All right,” and Percy going 
down upon his knees again, I dismounted. 

Without an instant’s pause my companion 
leaned back against the wall, put up his foot, and 
whispered to me to pull off his boot. Backing 
up to his foot I seized the boot-heel with my 
bound hands, and after some ineffectual strug- 
gles Percy withdrew his foot; in doing so he 
pulled out the knife also, which fell upon the 
fioor with a clank loud enough, as it seemed to 
us, to wake the echoes. We paused, breathless, 
listening for Bates to make some movement, but 
he apparently had heard nothing. 

Percy, by lying down upon the ground, man- 
aged to get hold of the knife, and grasping it 
firmly by the handle, point upward, the edge 
toward himself, he rose to his feet again. 

Now, Tom,” said he, get back to back. Pass 
the rope that ties your wrists over the point of 
the knife and work it up and down against the 
edge. I’ll hold the knife steady. Don’t cut 
yourself ; it ’s pretty sharp.” 

With some difficulty, being unable to see what 


^04 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


I was doing, I followed these instructions, and 
after about two minutes’ sawing the rope broke 
with a pop and my hands were free. I took 
the knife from Percy, and being able now to see 
my work, I soon cut his bonds ; when he, in 
turn, freed my elbows, and our hands once more 
became serviceable members. 

“ What ’s the next move, Percy ? ” I asked, as 
I cast the remnants of rope into the corner. 
How are we to get at Bates ? ” 

Let us cut a hole in the hide first, so that 
we can see what he is doing,” Percy replied. 
“ Climb up on my shoulders again.” 

I was soon up this time. Bates was sitting 
quietly on a log with his face towards the 
cabin. 

“ Is he looking ? ” asked Percy. 

^Wes,” said I. 

Tell me w^hen he looks away, and I ’ll cut a 
hole in the hide.” 

Bates presently turned his head. 

Now ! ” said I ; and Percy instantly 
jabbed ” the knife through the hide and 
withdrew it again. He then inserted a small 
bit of bark into the hole to keep it open, and as 
the hairy side of the hide was outward, and the 
hole therefore invisible, we could keep watch 


A Counter-Stroke 


205 


on Bates’s movements w^ithout bis being aware 
of the fact. 

^^We must make Mm move somehow,” said 
Percy, after I bad once more descended to tbe 
ground. It won’t do to try to rush Mm from 
here ; be might be surprised into shooting us, 
even if he did n’t intend to.” 

After proposing and dismissing a variety of 
more or less impracticable plans, we hit upon a 
device which, as it seemed to us to promise 
well, we agreed to attempt. 

Tbe chimney of our cabin projected only 
about six inches above the roof, and, the cabin 
being built upon the slope of the hill, its roof 
was so much above the level of the ground at 
the camp-fire that anyone standing down there 
could not see the chimney-top. Percy had 
noted the fact that very morning, and it was 
upon that fact that we based the plan for our 
deliverance. 

While I kept watch upon Bates, Percy 
climbed up tbe inside of tbe chimney, and with 
great care removed the stones which formed its 
front wall, laying them one by one upon the 
roof. In ten minutes this was accomplished, 
and he then came softly down again. 

Did he move ? ” he asked. 


2 o 6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


No,” I replied. He did n’t hear a sound, 
evidently. Did you get it all down ? Can you 
get out, do you think ? ” 

“ Oh, yes, I can get out. The thing now is 
to bring him up close. Watch, while I stir him 
up.” 

Percy stepped to the wall of the cabin, and 
taking hold of a big piece of loose bark he 
ripped it off. At the sound Bates sprang to 
his feet, all alert in an instant, advanced a step or 
two, and stopped. 

Scratch ! ” I whispered. 

Percy scraped the piece of bark upon the 
floor, making a small but distinct sound, upon 
hearing which Bates advanced again on the tips 
of his toes. His suspicions were aroused ; 
which was just what we wanted. 

T held up my finger. Percy stopped, and so 
did Bates. I could see by his expression that 
he was listening intently. Once more the 
operation was repeated, with the same result, 
and Bates being now within ten feet of the 
cabin, Percy handed the piece of bark to me 
and himself crept into the fireplace. 

I stepped to one side of the cabin, scratched 
a little, and hopped back to the peep-hole, just 
in time to see Bates go picking his way round 


A Counter-Stroke 


207 


the corner of the house. Immediately after- 
wards a handful of dirt fell into the fireplace : 
a preconcerted signal to let me know that Percy 
was safely up on the roof. 

I then got inside the fireplace myself, that 
being the safest situation in case Bates should 
fire through the chinks, — though we did not be- 
lieve he would do so, — and reaching as far as I 
could round the corner, I began scraping the 
floor of the cabin near the wall with the crack- 
ling bark, pausing every now and then to listen. 

It was an anxious moment, for the success of 
our plan depended upon my being able to induce 
Bates to come close to the wall. Percy, I knew, 
was lying flat upon the roof, eagerly awaiting 
his opportunity ; but where was Bates ? That 
was the important question. 

Once more I began scratching on the floor, 
when, as if he had known of my anxiety, and 
was desirous of removing it. Bates, with an 
assumed gruffness' of voice which nearly made 
me give vent to an inopportune laugh, called 
out : 

“ Stop that ! If you try to scratch out, I ’ll 
shoot.” 

I stopped for an instant, and then began 
again, very softly, hoping to draw him close to 


2o 8 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


the wall to listen. The ruse was most successful. 
Not only did he come close, but he stooped 
down with his ear to one of the chinks. 

Now or never was our chance ! and my 
watchful chum was not the one to miss it. At 
the moment when Bates bent down with his 
head close to the wall, Percy, leaping lightly 
from the roof, landed — by no means lightly — 
with both knees upon the middle of our jailer’s 
back, sending him to the ground with all the 
breath driven out of his body. 

Come on ! ” he shouted ; and at the call I 
rushed at the door, burst it bodily from its fast- 
enings, and ran round the house, to find Bates 
lying upon his face with Percy sitting upon 
him, holding him hrmly by both elbows. 

Get some rope ! ” cried Percy, the instant I 
appeared. 

Back I ran to the camp, cut off three feet of 
rope, and returned to the rear of the cabin. 
Within five minutes Bates was bound hand and 
foot — perfectly helpless. 

Leaving our prostrate enemy where he lay — 
after first taking away his rifle — we hastened to 
the camp, whence, with our own rifles and cart- 
ridge-belts in our hands, we set off as hard as we 
could run across the valley. 


A Counter-Stroke 


209 


Arrived at the bars, we paused for breath ; and 
having held a brief consultation as to whether we 
should go on or await Squeaky’s return where 
we were, we decided finally to go on ; for, though 
this would be an excellent place in which to lie 
in wait for him, and though by going on we 
might come upon him unawares and thus lose 
our present advantage of taking him by surprise, 
we w'ere bound to think of Jack, who, for all 
we knew, might at that moment be in need of 
our help. 

We had arrived at this conclusion, and I had 
put my foot upon the lowest rail preparatory to 
climbing over, when we heard faintly the sound 
of a horse’s hoofs clattering down the bare stone 
bed of the gorge. 

This way, this way ! ” whispered Percy, in 
great excitement; and turning about, we ran 
back a few steps and clambered up into the 
little fortification which I have before mentioned 
as commanding the passage. 

We’ll let him come through the bars and 
set them up again,” said Percy, speaking very 
quickly, “ and then he won’t be able to run 
back. As soon as the bars are up I ’ll step out 
and order him to throw up his hands. If he 
makes any sign of an intention to shoot, you 


210 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


must shoot at him through the loophole. Will 
you do it ? ” 

Percy asked this question, knowing very well 
by his own feelings how reluctant I should be 
to shoot a man. 

“Yes,” I replied, after a short hesitation, 
“ I ’ll do it. As far as I see there ’s nothing 
else for it. It is his life or ours ; so, as it can’t 
be helped, I ’ll do it.” 

Seeing how hard it went with me to assent 
to this course, Percy magnanimously offered to 
change places with me, though it would have 
been quite as hard for him as for me ; but to this 
I would not agree, and so we let the arrangement 
stand as it was, sincerely hoping that Squeaky 
might submit without a fight. Had we had 
more time we might have hit upon some other 
plan, but hurried as we were we had no oppor- 
tunity for a full discussion of the matter. 

As it was we had hardly settled upon our 
course of action, when round the corner there 
came, full into view, a man on foot, with a 
horse walking behind him. 

It was Jack ! 



CHAPTER XII 

A GOOD KEDDANCE 

J ACK, when he rode away towards Bozeman 
the morning before, had no sooner placed 
the hill between us and himself than he turned 
short to his left and galloped off in a new di- 
rection. Keeping in the shelter of the woods, 
he circled back until he arrived at a point con- 
siderably higher than the camp, whence he 
could look down upon us and note the direction 
we took when we set out for the horse-thieves’ 
hiding-place. 

Having no pack-mules to drive, it was easy 
for him to keep ahead of our party, and when, 
about three in the afternoon. Squeaky stopped 
to scan the valley behind us for signs of our 
captain’s presence, our captain himself, half a 
mile to one side of the trail, was lying flat upon 
his stomach on the mountain-side five hundred 
feet above, looking down at us. 

There he lay, watching, while we followed 

2II 


212 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

Bates along the top of the ridge and in among 
the loose rocks which concealed the entrance to 
the little canon, which in turn led up to the 
tunnel. Knowing nothing, and for the time 
suspecting nothing, of any such underground 
passage. Jack lay still, waiting for our reappear- 
ance, or at least for a sight of the smoke of our 
camp-fire, until dark, when he went back to the 
dry gully where he had left the horse and dog, 
and riding part way down the mountain again 
he made camp for the night. In a secluded 
hollow well concealed by the trees he lighted a 
little fire, and wrapping himself in the saddle- 
blanket, he passed a rather comfortless night ; 
for at that altitude and at that time of year the 
night-frosts were decidedly sharp. 

At daylight next morning he returned to his 
post of observation, and there he again Tvept 
watch until an hour after sunrise, waiting, in 
vain of course, for the telltale smoke of a camp- 
fire to inform him of our whereabouts. As no 
such smoke appeared he become convinced that 
the hiding-place must be some capacious cave, 
whose entrance was concealed among the loose 
rocks; and very much troubled he was to de- 
cide whether to go on or to give up the attempt. 
He decided at last to go on. 


A Good Riddance 


213 


Riding down to the point where we had dis- 
appeared from view, he there left Toby stand- 
ing, and went forward on foot, with Ulysses, 
who seemed perfectly to comprehend the state 
of the case, sniffing along in front of him. The 
ground was so hard that no sign of a hoof-mark 
was to be seen ; nevertheless there must have 
been a lingering scent of the mules and horses, 
for the old dog, without any hesitation, led the 
way to the dry watercourse, and down it to the 
edge of the stream. There, to his great satis- 
faction, Jack picked up a shotgun cartridge, and 
at once he jumped to the conclusion that one of 
us had had the sense to drop it as a guide for him. 

Hastening back he brought Toby down, and 
taking up Ulysses on the saddle — not knowing 
but that the stream might be strong enough to 
knock the dog’s feet from under him and send 
him rolling over the fall — he rode up the steep 
incline until he came in view of the arched 
mouth of the tunnel. 

Ah,” thought he to himself, so it is a 
cave.” 

Once more he stopped to consider whether 
to go on or to turn back, and once more he 
decided to go on. 

Advancing into the cavern until there was 


214 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

but a glimmer of light behind him and perfect 
darkness ahead, he stopped again, this time for 
three or four minutes, listening with all his 
ears. There was no sound of voices, no sound 
of a horse snorting or shaking himself, no crack- 
ling of a fire, no smell of smoke. Jack began 
to suspect that the cave was merely a passage. 
To make sure, he ventured to strike a match, 
and looking quickly around he saw that he was 
probably right; there was no opening visible 
anywhere, the walls were quite solid. At the 
same time he observed that the reason he could 
not see daylight ahead was that a big bulge in 
the wall at one side cut off his view. 

Throwing the match into the water, he ad- 
vanced around tlio bulge and rode on slowly 
until he came in sight of the second dry water- 
course which led down to the valley, and there 
he paused again to listen. It was well he did 
so. He had not been standing there one minute 
ere he distinctly heard the click of horseshoes 
on the bare stone, and a moment afterwards 
Squeaky rode into view, coming leisurely up 
the gully. 

Jack backed away until he could no longer 
see the approaching enemy, and then turning 
about he rode quickly but silently back to tbe 


A Good Riddance 


215 


far side of the bulge. There, leaving Ulysses 
on the saddle, and putting the reins into the 
dog’s mouth, with an order to keep quiet, he 
himself slipped into the water, and wading 
some steps forward, squatted down in the middle 
of the pool, his head and his hands only being 
above the surface. It was not his intention to 
risk a shot in the dark, — indeed, he was as much 
opposed to shooting a man as we were, — but he 
hoped to be able to seize Squeaky by the foot 
as he passed and to throw him from his horse 
into the water, when he would have a good 
chance of mastering him. 

Meanwhile Squeaky came riding into the 
tunnel, quite unsuspicious of Jack’s presence, 
and advanced straight upon him, until Jack, 
fearing that he was about to be trodden upon, 
was on the point of hitting the hoi’se upon the 
side of its head with his rifle-barrel to make it 
swerve, when the horse itself, suddenly thrust- 
ing forward its nose, snorted in Jack’s face and 
whirled round. This unexpected action un- 
seated Squeaky, who fell flat upon his face upon 
the water, at the same time dropping his rifle, 
which exploded as it fell. 

Jack was upon him in a moment, like a cat 
upon a mouse, and grasping him by the collar 


2i 6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

with his right hand he pressed his head beneath 
the water, while he held his rifle ready in his 
left to strike him upon the skull if he must. 

Squeaky was a powerful fellow, but on this 
occasion he had to do with one as strong as 
himself. Taken by surprise, deprived of his 
weapon, assaulted suddenly and vigorously from 
behind by a silent, unseen enemy, and more 
than all, choked by the water every time he 
tried to draw breath, he had no chance. The 
struggle lasted less than fis^e minutes, during a 
great part of which time Squeaky’s head was 
under water. His efforts grew more and more 
feeble, and at length ceased altogether. 

Then, still holding him by the collar, all 
ready to duck him again if he should be sham- 
ming, Jack dragged his defeated foe to the end 
of the tunnel and dropped him upon dry ground, 
where he lay motionless, streaming water from 
every part of his body. He was, in fact, very 
nearly drowned. 

Having whistled to Toby, who at once came 
wading out of the darkness. Jack cut from the 
saddle three of the long buckskin strings with 
which it was adorned, and with them he bound 
his still unconscious antagonist by his wrists, 
his elbows, and his ankles. 


A Good Riddance 


217 


The enemy being thus rendered entirely 
helpless, it remained to find out whether he was 
dead or alive ; a question which was solved in a 
few minutes by the gasping and coughing of the 
captive as he began to get his breath again. 
At these signs of recovery Jack felt a good 
deal relieved, for though in his opinion it would 
be a benefit to the community if Squeaky were 
dead, still he had no desire to be himself the 
executioner. 

As soon as Squeaky was sufficiently recovered 
to sit up. Jack, seeing that he was shivering 
with cold, unceremoniously seized him by the 
collar again and dragged him to a spot where 
the sun’s rays found their way to the bottom of 
the canon, and there propped him up with his 
back against the wall. 

“Well, Mr. Morgan,” said he, “it looks to me 
as if it were my turn now.” 

At this address Squeaky opened his little 
piggy eyes as wide as they would go. His hat, 
and with it his mask, had remained in the pool. 

“Who are you calling ‘Mr. Morgan’?” he 
asked, with an injured air. 

“ You,” replied Jack. “ That was your name 
back in Utah, I remember. But I suppose a 
name does n’t last more than three months or so 


2i 8 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

with gentlemen in your line of business. Never 
mind that, though. Where are my friends ? ” 

Squeaky looked hard at Jack for a minute, 
and then, thinking perhaps that it would be as 
well to propitiate his captor, he replied : 

They ’re in a little cabin on the other side 
of the valley down here. They ’re all right ; 
at least they were half an hour ago.” 

“ Very well,” said Jack. Then I ’ll go down 
and call upon them. You will have to stay 
here till I come back. I ’ll leave you the dog 
for company ; and let me recommend you to sit 
still — he bites sometimes. Here, Ulysses ; 
mind him.” 

Ulysses, who had left his perch on Toby’s 
back, advanced at the call, and, lying down with 
his chin upon his crossed paws, stared fixedly 
at the prisoner in a most embarrassing manner ; 
upon which Jack, having patted the dog and 
repeated the command to ^^mind him,” shoul- 
dered his rifle, and, whistling to Toby to follow, 
walked off down the gully. 

As he had surprised Squeaky, so he was 
destined to suffer a surprise himself, for, ten 
minutes later, he was impetuously assaulted by 
us two escaped prisoners, who, regardless of 
the rifle he instinctively presented at our heads. 


A Good Riddance 


219 


rushed from our fortification, scrambled over the 
barrier, and were all over him ” in a moment. 

What a joyous meeting that was ! What an 
immense relief to our minds to find ourselves 
once more together, alive and unharmed ! It 
was hard to realize that we had been parted 
only for twenty-four hours ; it seemed much 
more like twenty-four days. 

Very few words sufiiced to explain the situa- 
tion ; when, assuming the command again. Jack 
directed me to go back and look after Bates, 
while he and Percy returned to the pool to 
bring Squeaky down. 

In a short time our two prisoners were seated 
side by side with their backs against the cabin 
wall, Ulysses and I standing guard over them, 
while Jack and Percy at a little distance dis- 
cussed in low tones the somewhat difficult 
question as to what we were to do with them. 

Percy presently came and relieved guard, and 
I then walked over to Jack, who explained to 
me the plan decided upon — subject to my 
approval. 

It was, in brief, that we should set out at 
once for Bozeman, and there deliver up Squeaky 
to the authorities ; charging him with kidnap- 
ping, or blackmailing, or whatever the proper 


220 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

term might be by which his offence was known 
to the law ; at the same time giving information 
of the stolen horses, which were to be left in 
the valley. 

As to Bates, some time in the course of the 
journey he was to be allowed accidentally to 
escape. Besides a natural inclination to be easy 
on our ex-schoolfellow, — an inclination to which 
Jack readily deferred, — we felt sure that he 
had been led into this business more or less 
against his will ; we knew that he had expressed 
his intention to preserve our lives, and we felt 
grateful to him accordingly ; moreover we were 
pretty sure that when free to go where he would, 
he would fly with all speed to the other side of 
the Atlantic. And that, 'vve were agreed, was 
the very best thing he could do. We did not 
wish to ruin his life by consigning him to jail 
for an unknown number of years ; and we 
reasoned that if anything would deter him from 
taking such risks again, it would be the scare he 
would get when he found himself, as he would 
suppose, about to be turned over to the tender 
mercies of the Territorial authorities — a scare 
which, as his pale countenance testified, was 
already beginning to press upon him pretty 
heavily. 


A Good Riddance 


221 


As to the question whether or not we should 
disclose to Bates the fact that we were aware 
of his identity, we decided in the negative, 
thinking that it would be an act of charity to 
allow him to escape unrecognised, as he would 
believe ; for he still retained his mask, and 
unless he should voluntarily discard it, we 
should have no difficulty in keeping up our pre- 
tence of ignorance. 

We decided also that Jack should do all the 
ordering, and that we two should hold as little 
communication as possible with the prisoners. 

The matter being settled we at once set about 
our preparations for departure. While Percy, 
with Ulysses’ assistance, remained as guard. Jack 
galloped off on Toby to bring tip the mules and 
horses, — Squeaky’s horse had returned of its own 
accord, — and I put together the packs, now very 
light, for our provisions were almost entirely 
expended. 

The mules being packed and the horses sad- 
dled, Bates’s bonds were cut, and he was ordered 
to mount, I being set over him as guard. 
Next, Squeaky’s horse was brought up, but be- 
fore its owner was allowed to mount, the bridle 
was pulled over the horse’s head and attached 
by a short length of rope to the pack-saddle of 


222 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

the more sober of our two mules — old Joe. 
Then, while Jack with cocked rifle stood over 
him, Squeaky’s bonds were cut by Percy, and 
he was told to get into the saddle. I was half 
afraid he would make a dash for liberty, but 
having glanced from Jack to Percy, and from 
Percy back to Jack, and judging from their atti- 
tude of determination that it would be well to 
obey, persuaded too by the gleam of teeth dis- 
played by the ready Ulysses, he obeyed accord- 
ingly, growling to himself like a discontented 
bear. 

We three having mounted, the procession 
started ; Bates first, then I, riding Toby in or- 
der that the mules might follow with docility, 
then Calliope, who always took precedence of 
Joe, then Joe himself, towing Squeaky’s horse, 
and last of all. Jack and Percy, side by side. 

At the bars Bates was ordered to dismount 
and let them down, while Percy, when we had 
passed through, stopped to put them up again. 
Soon we entered the tunnel. As it began to 
get dark Jack produced from his pocket half a 
dozen slivers of pitch-pine, and putting a match 
to them, held them aloft for a torch. The 
flare showed up the walls and the arched roof 
for a long distance before and behind, and if the 


A Good Riddance 


223 


prisoners bad entertained hopes of slipping 
away in the darkness they were disappointed. 

By midday we reached our old camping- 
ground, for we had descended much more 
quickly than we had gone up the range, but 
without stopping there we went on until six 
o’clock, when Jack gave the order to camp. Our 
prisoners were fed and sent to bed, tightly 
rolled up in their blankets, after the fashion 
that Squeaky had adopted with us, and one or 
other of our party stood guard over them all 
night, Ulysses acting as an efficient assistant to 
each of us. In the same order we set out again 
next day, and jogged along till near noon, by 
which time we judged we must be coming soon 
within sight of our destination. 

All this time Bates had made no sign of wish- 
ing to escape, and I was wondering how we 
were to get rid of him, when Percy came riding 
along the line, and joining me, began a whis- 
pered discussion of that very subject. He did 
not advance very far, however, for ere he had 
finished his first remark an event occurred 
which rendered any further discussion un- 
necessary. 

Just ahead of us, beside the trail we were 
following, stood a big old pine-tree, the upper 


224 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

half of which was dead. As we passed this 
tree there came one of those sudden, whirling 
wind‘Storms so common in the mountain-coun- 
try ; the top of the tree was twisted off and cast 
upon the ground close to old Joe’s quarters. 
The startled mule sprang forward, Squeaky’s 
hoi'se sprang backward, and the result was, 
naturally, that the head-stall of the bridle 
broke. At the same moment we were assailed 
by a vicious, spiteful blast of sand and small 
pebbles, which stung our faces so that every- 
one instinctively lowered his head and threw up 
one arm as a protection. The squall lasted only 
a quarter of a minute, but in that quarter-minute 
Bates and Squeaky seized the opportunity they 
had doubtless been waiting for and went off 
down wind with the dust-cloud. When we 
looked up again they were just disappearing 
into the woods behind us, lying flat upon their 
horses’ backs to avoid the bullets they evidently 
expected to be sent after them. 

It was uncommonly well done on their part, 
I am bound to admit. I had not given Bates, 
at any rate, credit for such promptness of 
action. 

Jack’s first impulse was to fulfil their expect- 
ations by sending an experimental bullet after 


A Good Riddance 


225 


them. He half raised his rifle ; but on second 
thought he lowered it again, and turning to us, 
said : 

“ Well, after all, I believe that that is the best 
way out of it. They won’t trouble us any more. 
We’ll inform the authorities, and if they want 
to go after them they can do so. I ’m sorry for 
Bates, though ; he ’ll live to be hanged, I ’m 
afraid.” 

“ I wish he had escaped before,” said Percy. 
“ Now that he has gone off again with Squeaky 
there’s no telling what scrape he will be led 
into next. It is a pity we did n’t tell him we 
were going to let him escape.” 

I ’m sorry too,” Jack responded ; but we 
acted to the best of our judgment. I don’t 
think we are to blame. There is one thing : — 
he may have been so badly scared by the 
prospect of going to prison that he may con- 
clude to pai*t company with Squeaky at the first 
opportunity.” 

“ Do you suppose they will go back to the 
hiding-place ? ” I asked. 

“ I doubt it,” replied Jack. They will know 
that we shall give information of the place as 
soon as we get to town, and that somebody will 

probably set out at once to recover the horses, 
15 


226 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


when they might be caught like rats in a trap. 
They are more likely, I think, to get as far 
away as they can from the place. Come on. 
Let us jog along. We must get in before sun- 
set, if possible.” 

The citizens of Bozeman were accustomed, I 
suppose, to the sight of rough-looking strangers 
riding through their streets ; and we were 
rough-looking enough, surely, with our elbows 
showinoj throuojh our coat-sleeves and our knees 
through our trousers, with our hair down below 
our collars, and our faces so sunburned that 
Jack and Percy looked like a pair of Mexicans, 
while I was about the colour of the rising moon. 
At any rate, nobody took any notice of us as we 
rode along the main street of the little town to 
the post-office, and there pulled up. 

Jack dismounted and went in, returning in a 
few minutes with a handful of letters, and we 
then passed on through the town and encamped 
upon the stream just outside. There were three 
or four letters for each of us. Eagerly, and 
with a bit of a tremour, Percy and I tore open 
the envelopes, one after the other, glanced at the 
contents, and simultaneously heaved such a big 
sigh of satisfaction that Jack looked up. 

All right ? ” he asked. 


A Good Riddance 


227 


“ All right,” we replied together. 

“ Good ! ” said he. Same here.” 

After which laconic dialogue, silence ensued 
for the space of half an hour, while we read and 
re-read the welcome letters from home. 

Letters from home ! Nobody knows their 
right value until he reads them five thousand 
miles away from the hand that wrote them. 

It was plain that my parents had great con- 
fidence in Jack, for they expressed no anxiety 
on my account, though they did intimate that 
it was rather a long time since they had heard 
from me. They also suggested that it was 
about time we came home again, though, if there 
should be a really good reason for our not re- 
turning at once, we were given permission to 
stay on. 

They were too wise, however, to leave the 
question of the goodness of the reason to our 
prejudiced and immature opinions; Jack was to 
be the sole and only judge. 

Jack, we found, had a letter from Percy’s 
father repeating these instructions, and having 
read it, he sat silent for five minutes, thinking, 
while Percy and I fidgeted about, waiting for 
his decision. At length he delivered judg- 
ment. 


228 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


“Well, you fellows,” said he, regretfully, 
“ I suppose you must go home.” 

“ Oh, no ! ” we both exclaimed together. 
“Not yet.” 

“My instructions are to send you home,” 
Jack went on, “ unless there is a good reason 
against it ; and I ’m afraid there ’s no good 
reason. AVe Ve had a jolly outing; but from a 
business point of view it has resulted in nothing. 
From the day we started to this present moment 
we have n’t seen so much as a speck of gold. 
— AVhat ’s up?” 

It was no wonder he asked what was up ; for 
Percy, springing from the ground as suddenly 
as though he had just discovered that he was 
sitting on a nest of red ants, dived his hand into 
his trousers pocket, and then, holding it out, 
palm upwards, exclaimed, “ What ’s that ? ” 

“ Where did you get that ? ” cried Jack, full 
of excitement in a moment. 

“I found it in a pot-hole in the bed of the 
creek, close to that curious rock in the horse- 
thieves’ hiding-place.” 

“You did!” 

Jack took the little nugget; looked it over 
and over ; took out his pockebknife and cut 
little nicks in it ; and then, for several seconds. 


A Good Riddance 


229 


stood staring bard at nothing ; while we stood 
silently by, staring hard at him. 

Pj’esently he heaved a big sigh, shut up the 
knife with a snap, and said quietly, but with 
much decisiveness : 

I ’m going back.” 

‘‘ Then so are we,” said Percy. 




CHAPTEK XIII 

THE CLEANING OF THE POT-HOLES 

“ XT O, no,” said Jack. “ I think you ought 
1 \l to go home. Besides, it ’s too danger- 
ous. I don’t like the responsibility of taking 
you back there.” 

But look here. Jack,” Percy persisted. We 
are given leave to stay if there is a good reason 
for staying ; and sui*ely we have a good enough 
reason now. When we set out from Golcpnda 
our chief object was to help you to find gold, 
and here is not only the best, but the only real 
chance we have had. Then again, as to the 
danger, the only danger is from Squeaky, and 
in my opinion we run less risk from him now 
than we did in the beginning, for he is disarmed, 
— for the present, at any rate, — and, besides that, 
we know what to expect of him, and we will 
keep on the lookout accordingly. I don’t think 
he will catch us again.” 


230 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 231 

“ There ’s another thing,” said I. “ It is a 
great deal more dangerous for you to go by 
yourself than it is for all three to go together. 
You can’t prospect by day and stand guard by 
night.” 

“ But ” 

Hold up ! ” exclaimed Percy, cutting in be- 
fore Jack could get any farther. ‘T ’ll tell 
you what we ’ll do — if Tom will agree. As 
Tom says, you certainly can’t prospect by day 
and stand guard by night ; you ’d wear out in 
two days. Well, we may not be much to brag 
of as prospectors, but we can stand guard just 
as well as anybody ; and here is what I propose 
to do: We’ll go back to the thieves’ den; 
we ’ll carefully examine the whole valley to 
make sure that Squeaky has n’t returned, — 
though as to that, we should see his tracks, be- 
cause, you remember, it rained as we came out, — 
and if he is not there, which he won’t be, I ’m 
pretty sure, Tom and I will take it in turn to 
stand guard in that little fortification, day and 
night, and night and day ; we ’ll just live 
there ; and I ’d like to see Squeaky or anybody 
else pass those bars while we are squinting at 
them through the loopholes with a rifle in our 
hands. There ! What do you say, Tom ? ” 


232 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

I ’m agreed,” said I, briefly. 

Then what do you say, J ack ? ” 

I say you ’re a bully good pair of fellows, 
and I ’m ever so much obliged to you, and I 
accept your offer. Back we go, all three 
of us.” 

Hurrah ! ” shouted Percy. “ When ? ” 

‘‘To-morrow morning, if possible. But we 
must hustle, for we have plenty to do before 
then. Let me think.” 

Our captain stood silent for a minute, and 
then, in a quick, decisive manner, issued his 
orders. 

“ I must go,” said he, “ and hunt up the 
sheriff and tell him about those horses. If he ’ll 
go back with us, so much the better. While 
I ’m doing that — and there ’s no telling how 
long it will take me — you must go and buy 
some hay — the grass here is no good — and a 
small sack of oats, and give the mules and 
horses a good feed. When you have done that, 
go to a store — the one where the post-office is 
— and buy two fifty-pound sacks of flour and 
twenty -five pounds of sugar, and wait there un- 
til I join you. While you are waiting, buy some 
writing-paper and write home. That ’s all. Off 
you go ! ” 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 233 

In the course of an hour or so we had fulfilled 
these commands, and had each of us written a 
long letter home, when Jack joined us in the 
store. He had been obliged to wait for some 
time in the sheriff’s ofiice, and had himself util- 
ised the time by writing letters. 

It ’s all fixed,” said he. A deputy sheriff 
is coming with us ; he will come to our camp 
the first thing to-morrow morning, and we ’ll all 
go together.” 

This was very satisfactory ; we felt that we 
should have the law on our side, and if there 
was any shooting to be done, the deputy would 
be the one to do it, which, I must confess, was 
a very comforting refiection. 

It was a great satisfaction to me, therefore, 
when, soon after sunrise, the deputy appeared, 
a thin, wiry man, with a hooked nose and high 
cheek-bones ; and not only he, but another man, 
a burly fellow with a black beard. A determ- 
ined-looking pair they were, and I thought I 
would a good deal rather have them on my side 
in a fight than against me. 

We set off at once, and soon after midday of 
the second day we were back again on the hog- 
back. 

As we went down the dry watercourse, the 


234 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


bearded man, looking upward at the rock 
which overhung the edge of the chasm, re- 
marked : 

That there rock up there, if it was to fall 
down, would block this passage pretty neat. 
A man ’ud need stand from under if he did n’t 
want to be squeezed out as flat as the king of 
trumps.” 

That ’s what,” replied the deputy. Looks 
as if a man might shove it down with his foot, 
too, don’t it ? Hallo ! Up that way, eh ? ” — 
as Jack, who was leading, turned to the right 
and began to go up the waterway. 

We ascended the slope, waded through the 
tunnel, which greatly excited the astonishment 
of the two men, and went on part way down 
the second dry watercourse, but as we turned 
the corner which brought us in sight of the bars 
Jack pulled up, and addressing the men, said : 

“ There ’s a set of bars here, and a little stone 
fort just beyond. If the men have come back, 
and if they have any arms, that is where 
they ’ll be.” 

Very well,” said the deputy, calmly, ^Hhen 
it ’s my business to turn them out. It ’s no 
concern of you boys ; so you can keep out of 
range. Just stay here while I go down.” 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 235 

Without more ado he stepped round the 
corner, stood for a minute with his cocked rifle 
in his hand gazing earnestly at the loopholes, 
and then marched straight down the middle of 
the ravine, climbed over the bars, and scrambled 
up into the little fort. 

Nobody here,” said he, jumping down again ; 
and coming back to the bars he let them down 
for us to pass through. 

It was an extremely plucky thing to do, in 
my opinion. I know that nothing would have 
induced me to face those loopholes. But the 
deputy seemed to be absolutely without fear; 
I myself, standing in safety around the corner, 
was a great deal more afraid for him than he 
appeared to be for himself. He was taking his 
life in his hands, for all he knew, and yet he 
did it as calmly as though it were part of an 
ordinary day’s work. He was an uncommonly 
plucky fellow, that deputy. 

We were soon at the exit of the gully, and 
there Jack once more requested a halt. Going 
forward a short distance, he examined the 
ground carefully, and then called out : It ’s all 
right. Nobody has been down here.” 

At the mouth of the gully there lay a fan- 
shaped bed of sand, brought down by the over- 


236 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

flow of the spring above. The rain of three or 
four days ago had been heavy enough to send a 
thin stream of water over it, obliterating all 
the old tracks and leaving it perfectly smooth. 
There was not a foot-mark or a hoof-mark upon 
it, old or new. 

This was a very satisfactory discovery, and 
we rode on down into the valley with a great 
accession of confidence. 

“ Well ! ” exclaimed the deputy, as he issued 
from among the trees and surveyed the little 
valley with its surrounding wall, “ if this 
is n't the very finest ready-made corral for the 
horse-thief business ever I saw, call me a horse- 
thief myself ! ” 

“ And how they ever come to find it beats 
me ! ” added his companion. 

“ Some hunter or prospector, maybe, hiding 
from the Indians in among the rocks up above 
there, got into the stream to cover his tracks, 
and so found the tunnel,” suggested the deputy. 

“That’s it, likely,” said the other. “But 
there ’s deer in here too. I see a bunch of ’em 
down at the far end now. How ’d they get in ? 
Same way ? ” 

“ Same way, I guess, unless they tumbled in. 
The horses is down there too, I see; we may 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 237 

as well go and round ’em up right away. It 
is n’t more ’n two o’clock, and we may just as 
well dig out at once. We ’ll make ten miles on 
the back track before night.” 

Then,” said Jack, while you are getting 
up the horses, we three will make a tour of the 
valley to see if there is any way but this of get- 
ting in or out. Come on, you fellows ; if we set 
off at once we can make the round before the 
others are ready to leave.” 

Our survey, which occupied about an hour, 
disclosed the fact that, excepting at two points, 
the wall surrounding the valley was at least 
forty feet higher than the tops of the trees 
which grew upon the slopes below it. The 
first of these exceptions was immediately be- 
hind the Mushroom Eock. There the bank 
extended from the foot of the rock up to within 
twenty feet of the top of the wall ; if one had 
a ladder of that length he might get out there. 
The second exception was at the canon, where 
the stream left the valley; but as to getting 
out in that direction, it seemed as impossible as 
it would be to fly over the wall itself. The 
gorge was crowded with great boulders fallen 
from above, between which rushed the foaming 
stream — the maddest, fiercest little river I ever 


238 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

saw. None but a man in the last straits of des- 
peration would ever think of attempting the 
passage ; he would be pounded to death in five 
minutes, almost to a certainty. 

The result of this tour was most gratifying 
to us ; it proved conclusively that if Squeaky 
should entertain the idea of paying us a visit, 
he could not come in except by the high road,” 
and as long as we occupied the fort he could 
not come that way either without our leave. It 
was therefore with perfect confidence in our abil- 
ity to take care of ourselves that we watched the 
departure of our two friends, and, accompanying 
them as far as the bars, shouted Good-bye ! ” to 
them as they rode off round the corner, with the 
clattering herd of stolen horses going on before. 

‘^Now,” said Jack, “we will go to work 
systematically, and we ’ll begin by setting a 
guard. Tom, will you go on from now till 
supper-time ? ” 

“ All right,” said I, promptly. 

“ You and I, Percy,” he continued, “ will see 
if we can’t improve this barrier, so that nobody 
can come in without making a noise. I think I 
know how it may be done. Come with me. 
Ulysses shall stay with you, Tom.” 

As I took my station in the fort, the other two 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 239 

walked off down the gulley, and soon after- 
wards I heard above my head the sound of an 
axe ; they were chopping wood up there for 
some reason or other. Presently Jack appeared 
upon the edge of the ravine, called out, Look 
out, below ! ” and then, crash ! came a small dead 
pine-tree to the bottom of the gully on the upper 
side of the bars. Two others followed, when 
Percy came down again, and having arranged 
the three trees so that they lay side by side, 
completely covering the whole width of the bed 
of the gorge, he looked up and shouted, “ All 
right. Jack, send down the rest ! ” Down came 
three more trees, which were placed upon the 
top of the others, and the bars were then re- 
stored to their places. It was a great addition 
to our defences. The trees, arranged with their 
butts down - hill, presented a mass of brittle 
points to any intruder, and nobody could possi- 
bly climb over them or remove them without 
making a noise loud enough to arouse the sent- 
inel if he should happen to be dozing ; and as 
it was our intention that the sharp-eared Ulysses 
should always be a member of the guard, we 
were satisfied that now, at any rate, neither 
Squeaky nor anybody else could pass the bars 
without our permission. 


240 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

This abatis being completed, Jack and Percy 
went off to arrange the camp, selecting a position 
in a bunch of trees a little to one side of the 
mouth of the gully, and soon after sunset Percy 
came up to relieve guard and to give me an 
opportunity to get my supper. 

While I was thus engaged. Jack explained to 
me the course he proposed to follow, and the 
arrangement of the order of guard-mounting, of 
which he was to take his share at night ; after 
which, leaving Percy and Ulysses to keep the 
first watch, he and I retired to bed. 

Until all these preliminaries had been settled. 
Jack did not so much as mention the word 
‘^gold,” but next morning, soon after sunrise, 
while I took my place as sentinel for the day, 
he and Percy, who, as the finder of the nugget, 
naturally accompanied him to show him the 
place, went off together for the first day’s 
prospecting. 

The stream, as I think I have mentioned, had 
cut for itself a little groove in the solid stone 
fioor of the valley, while the floor itself, for a 
space of twenty feet on either side of the 
groove, had been laid bare by occasional freshets. 
Upon this level, smooth-swept surface stood the 
Mushroom Rock. 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 241 

How it ever came there was a puzzle. It 
could not have rolled down the mountain, for, 
as Jack at once discovered, it was composed of 
two different kinds of stone, the lower being a 
sandstone, the upper a granite rock, and, of 
course, had it fallen from the mountain the 
pieces would have come apart in doing so. 
Jack’s solution of the problem appeared to be 
the only reasonable one. He said it must be 
one of those vagrant rocks known as ‘^erratic 
boulders,” which had been carried here during 
the glacial period, and had been left standing 
when the ice melted away under it. That such 
a top-heavy rock should not have upset on the 
journey was hard to believe, but, in all proba- 
bility, the stem had been originally as large in 
circumference as the cap — larger, perhaps — but 
being of softer material it had worn away in 
the course of ages more rapidly than the upper 
part. 

Percy led the way to the spot where he had 
found his gold button, and pointed out to Jack 
the curious round hole in the bed of the stream 
from which it had come. There were several 
of these pot-holes, all of them, as it happened, 
down-stream from Mushroom Rock. They had 
been formed by the rattling around in them of a 


242 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

pebble, the hole ever growing larger and the 
pebble ever becoming smaller, until at last in 
the unequal contest the latter had been worn 
out entirely. Some of the holes were large 
enough to hold a bucketful of water ; it must 
have taken hundreds of years and worn out 
hundreds of pebbles to make them. 

Having inspected these pot-holes, and having 
found that each one of them had its little bed 
of black sand lying in the bottom, Jack said : 

“ Well, Percy, the first thing to be done is to 
gather as much as we can of this black sand and 
test it for gold. The greater part of the gold — 
if there is any — will be below the sand ; so the 
holes must be scraped out perfectly clean.” 

Percy agreed that this was undoubtedly the 
proper course ; but having come to this decision 
without any trouble they were next confronted 
by the question, — How were they to do it ? It 
would be an everlasting task to pick up the 
sand in pinches between one’s finger and thumb, 
and even then it would be impossible to clear 
the holes entirely of the residue which they 
expected to be the most valuable, if not the 
only valuable, part. Jack’s inventive mind hit 
upon the means of getting out the bulk of the 
sand. He ran back to the camp, and return- 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 243 

ing with one of our spoons in his hand, he bent 
the head of this domestic implement at right 
angles to the handle, thus forming of it a kind 
of scoop. 

Selecting as the first to be tested the hole in 
which Percy had found the nugget, he went 
down upon his hands and knees and ladled up 
a spoonful of the deposit. Up came the spoon, 
brimming with sand, but the moment it reached 
the surface the current whisked away the con- 
tents, and the spoon was empty. This process 
had every appearance of being a failure. 

“ Hold up a second,” cried Jack ; and off he ran 
once more to the camp, returning directly with 
a small tin cup in his hand. This he set in the 
bottom of the hole and filled by means of the 
spoon, and then, taking it up with the palm 
of his hand covering the top, he emptied it 
into the gold-pan which Percy was holding in 
readiness. 

So far, so good ; but presently Jack had 
scraped out all that the spoon would take up, 
and still there was a good deal of material left 
at the bottom of the hole. In turn they peered 
down through the water, persuading them- 
selves that they could detect a yellow shimmer 
about the residue — though the ripple and flash 


244 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

of the stream rendered it very uncertain whether 
they were right or not — but scrape and scrape 
as they might, they could get up no more of the 
sand. The matter could not, of course, be left 
in this unsatisfactory state ; — but what were 
they to do ? 

For some time they sat side by side upon 
the edge of the stream, like a pair of pelicans 
waiting for a fish, trying to think of some means 
of clearing out the hole, until, presently, Percy 
slapped his knee and exclaimed : 

I know. Jack, how we can do it ! Do you 
remember, in the story of ^Ali Baba and the 
Forty Thieves,’ how Ali’s brother’s wife put 
some tallow on the bottom of the pot she lent 
him to measure his money with, and how a 
piece of gold stuck to the tallow ? Well, let 
us take a lump of deer’s fat and press it down 
all over the bottom of the hole ; it will pick up 
everything there is there.” 

That ’s a great idea,” said Jack. “ But I ’m 
afraid, if we use fat, we shall have a great deal 
of trouble in getting rid of the grease after- 
wards. An old prospector once told me that. 
And besides, grease fioats, and is apt to carry 
off the gold with it. Is n’t there anything else 
we can use ? ” 


The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 245 

Dough,” suggested Percy, thoughtfully. 

“ H-m. Dough would do perhaps,” said Jack, 
dubiously, but I expect it would be about as 
bad as grease as far as getting the gold out of 
it again is concerned. Think again.” 

Clay,” said Percy. 

“ That ’s the stuff ! ” exclaimed Jack, jump- 
ing up. “ All hands turn loose and hunt for 
clay !” 

I have said before that Jack did not profess 
to know much about gold-washing. Had his 
friend, the old prospector, been at hand, he 
would have told him that the extraction of 
gold from clay was a process of notorious diffi- 
culty and tediousness ; but of this fact Jack 
was ignorant, — very fortunately for him, as it 
turned out. A little learning is a dangerous 
thing,” perhaps, but, strange to say, the little- 
ness of Jack’s learning in the art of gold- 
washing proved to be most advantageous to 
him. 

The two clay-hunters had not far to seek. 
On the bare stone beneath the Mushroom Rock 
they found a fair supply of some white material 
which they took to be clay — it was soft and 
sticky, and would therefore suit their purpose 
excellently, — and gathering all they could find 


246 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

they carried it to the edge of the stream, where 
Jack, going down again upon his knees, made 
up a ball as big as his two fists, dropped it into 
the pot-hole, and kneaded it about all over the 
bottom until he supposed it must have picked 
up everything there was down there. He could 
not see how the process was working, for the 
water turned milky ” the moment the clay was 
put into it. 

Percy having returned the black sand from 
the pan to the cup. Jack fished up the clay 
ball, which being now in a slimy condition con- 
cealed anything it might contain, dropped it 
into the pan, and filled the pan with water. 
As the clay gradually dissolved, he poured 
away the muddy water and renewed the supply, 
repeating the process many times, until at 
length the soft material had been all washed 
away and the water remained clear. 

Percy, gazing into the pan as Jack held it 
up, concluded that they had had all their 
trouble for nothing, for the only result appeared 
to be a further supply of that ever-intruding 
black sand, — he was tired of black sand, — 
but Jack, telling him to have a little pa- 
tience, poured away nearly all the water, 
and then, holding the pan almost upright, 



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The Cleaning of the Pot-Holes 247 

he, by a dexterous turn of the wrist, set the 
sand trickling from left to right along the 
hollow where the bottom of the pan turned up 
to form the side. 

And then, like the passing away of an eclipse 
of the sun, the black shadow moved to one side, 
and out came a little patch of yellow gold, — 
a teaspoonful. 




CHAPTER XIV 


HIGH TIME TO LEAVE 

LANCING at his companion, Percy, rather 



V_jr to his alarm, saw that Jack’s face was 
quite pale, his eyes wide open and staring, and 
that, though the day was cool, the perspiration 
was running down his cheeks. The fact was 
that Jack was taken with a brief but sharp at- 
tack of that curious disease known as “ the gold 
fever.” To Percy the amount of gold in the 
pan was no more than he had expected ; but 
Jack, on the other hand, was well aware that a 
spoonful of gold to one small pan of dirt ” was 
something extraordinary. 

“ Percy,” he burst out, in a high state of ex- 
citement, “ this is tremendous ! Perfectly tre- 
mendous ! There is fifty times — a hundred times 
— as much gold in that pan as I expected to 
see. There must be a vein of extraordinary 
richness somewhere about here. We must set 
to work to find it.” 


248 


249 


High Time to Leave 

I ’m ready,” responded Percy, catching 
something of his companion’s excitement. 
“ But how are we to set to work ? I don’t 
know where to look for it, nor what to look 
for.” 

First of all,” replied Jack, ‘‘ we ’ll clean out 
all the pot-holes, and test them, one at a time, to 
see how they compare for richness with the first 
one. After that we ’ll test the soil on both 
banks, and after that — well, after that we ’ll see. 
Will you just go over to the camp and bring 
down the wash-pan, a tin plate, and another 
spoon, while I try to get rid of a little more of 
this black sand in the pan? ” 

Percy was soon on hand with the desired ar- 
ticles, when Jack set him to work scouring the 
plate and the wash -pan with sand in order to re- 
move any particles of grease there might be ad- 
hering to them. This being done, the gold was 
turned into the plate, and the pair, each armed 
with a bent spoon, applied their labour to clear- 
ing out the next two pot-holes ; depositing all 
the black sand in the wash-pan, and dabbing a 
clay ball over the bottom of each hole. Jack 
then proceeded to extract the gold from the 
clay balls, while Percy cleaned out hole number 
four. In this manner they worked their way 


250 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

down-stream until they had cleaned up fourteen 
holes, each one of which yielded more or less 
gold, though, as a rule, the quantity decreased 
as they descended. There were only three 
holes left, but by this time the supply of clay 
had given out, and Percy therefore went back 
to look for more. There was no more where 
they had found the original deposit, but a few 
steps away, still beneath the cap of the Mush- 
room Rock, he found another heap which he 
gathered up and carried back to the stream. 
This lot of clay, he observed, had a reddish 
tinge, whereas the other had been almost pure 
white; but though he noticed the fact he 
thought nothing of it, and set to work on the 
last three holes without delay. 

To the surprise both of Jack and himself none 
of these three holes produced a scrap of gold — 
not a colour.” 

That is curious,” remarked Jack. “ But I 
suppose the first fourteen holes are so arranged 
in the bed of the creek as to intercept all the 
gold that comes down. Are you sure that you 
cleaned up the last three as thoroughly as you 
did the others ? ” 

“ I believe so,” replied Percy, “ but I ’ll do 
them over again and make sure.” 


High Time to Leave 251 

“ One ’s enough,” said Jack. Do the first of 
the three.” 

The result was the same, however. They 
got black sand, but not a speck of gold could 
they see, even with the aid of the magnifying- 
glass which Jack produced from his pocket. 

Well,” said he, “ then I suppose that is all 
the gold we are going to get out of the creek, 
so let us go ahead and try the soil on the banks 
to see if the vein it comes from is on this side or 
that, or from the mountain which supplies the 
creek itself.” 

Percy was about to assent to this proposal, 
when a sudden chill in the atmosphere caused 
them both to look up. The sun was going 
down. 

“ Why, just look at the sun ! ” Percy ex- 
claimed. “ I ’d no idea it was so late.” 

Neither had I,” responded Jack. “We’ve 
been so busy that I forgot all about the time. 
Come, let us get back to camp.” 

“ Poor old Tom ! ” said my chum, remorse- 
fully. “ There he has been, perched up in his 
sentry-box all day, and not a scrap of dinner 
has he had. He’ll think we’ve forgotten 
him.” 

“ If he does, he ’ll be right,” said Jack, laugh- 


252 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

ing. “Poor old chap, though, I’m sorry. 
Here, Percy, I ’ll carry the things ; you run on 
and let him out.” 

I did think they had forgotten me, I confess. 
All day long I had stood, or sat, at my post, 
with nothing to do but whistle and talk to 
Ulysses. Noontime came, but no dinner. Should 
I run down to the camp and get something to 
eat ? No, I should n’t. I was here to keep 
watch, dinner or no dinner, and watch I would 
keep if I got none for a week. There was one 
way, I knew, by which I could make my com- 
panions come flying to my relief, namely, by 
flring my rifle ; but that, I thought, would not 
be fair ; it would alarm them unnecessarily. I 
remembered, besides, the fable of the shepherd 
boy who called “ wolf ” when there was no wolf. 
No ; I must stick it out. And stick it out I did, 
though such a long, tedious day I never spent 
before. 

But when Percy came running up the gully, 
and, clambering into the fort, with one breath 
apologized for forgetting me, and in the next 
told me how it happened, I forgave them. And 
when, going down to the camp, I saw the little 
heap of gold in the tin plate, I forgave them 
still more. I did not wonder that they had for- 


253 


High Time to Leave 

gotten me for I should certainly have done the 
same by them. 

What do you suppose it is worth, Jack ? ” 
I asked, as I stirred up the wet and shining 
heap with my finger. “ Thirty or forty 
dollars ? ” 

Jack laughed. Three or four hundred is 
nearer the mark, I expect,” said he. “Just 
lift it.” 

The tin plate was standing in the gold-pan, 
and when I went to take it up I thought for 
the moment they must be stuck together ; it 
was so much heavier than I had anticipated. 

“ Why,” said I, “ it must weigh two pounds.” 

“ Just about,” replied Jack ; “ tin plate, black 
sand, and all ; and so I make a guess that the 
gold is worth four hundred dollars or so, reck- 
oning gold at eighteen dollars the Troy ounce, 
as they do here.” 

It seemed impossible ; such a little heap. 

“But, Jack,” said I, as the discomforting 
thought suddenly occurred to me, “ suppose it 
should not be gold at all. How do you know 
it is n’t copper ? ” 

“ Oh, there ’s no mistaking gold when you ’ve 
once seen it,” replied Jack. “ This stuff is gold, 
all right ; I have no doubt about it at all. But 


254 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

still, if you like, I ’ll test it and make certain, 
just to set your mind at rest, and to satisfy you 
that we have n’t put in ten hours’ hard labour 
to-day on a wild-goose chase.” 

Stepping over to the baggage. Jack hunted 
out an old cigar-box in which were a tiny porce- 
lain cup and a little glass-stoppered bottle, the 
latter containing nitric acid. Pouring a little of 
the acid into the cup. Jack dropped a scrap of 
the gold into it, and raking some hot ashes from 
the fire he set the cup upon them. Soon the 
acid began to simmer, and for five minutes it con- 
tinued to do so, without, however, producing 
the slightest effect upon the metal ; nor did the 
liquid itself change colour. 

^^It is gold, all right,” said Jack, removing 
the cup. “ Now, I ’ll just show you what 
would have happened if it had been copper.” 

With his knife he cut a shaving from a cop- 
per rivet, dropped the fragment into the cup, 
and replaced the cup upon the ashes. In an 
instant the acid attacked the copper, and pretty 
soon it had eaten it all up, turning itself a beau- 
tiful green colour in the process. 

You see,” said Jack, ‘‘ the copper can’t 
stand against this powerful acid, whereas the 
gold does n’t care a rap for it. Grold will hold 


255 


High Time to Leave 

its own against any single acid ; you must make 
a mixture of two of them before you can dis- 
solve ^ the royal metal,’ as it is called. So that 
question is settled. We have found gold, with- 
out doubt. The next thing to find is the place 
it came from.” 

Until bedtime that evening we sat together 
in the sentry-box talking over our find and ar- 
ranging the programme for the morrow, and 
next morning, Percy, whose turn it was to go 
on guard, went off up the gully, — wisely taking 
his dinner with him, — while I accompanied Jack 
down to the creek. 

Above the Mushroom Rock the bed of the 
stream was cumbered with boulders fallen from 
the mountain, but in between them were many 
crevices and hollows containing more or less 
sand and small gravel. These little depositories 
we examined carefully, picking up the residue 
by means of the red clay, of which we had a 
good supply left over from the day before, but 
in none of them was there so much as a colour 
of gold. At length we had worked up close 
to the circular basin which the stream, falling 
from the cliff above, had worn in its hard stone 
bed, and there, just below the basin, we found 
a natural “ riffle,” as Jack called it ; a little 


256 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

ledge two inches high running across the stream, 
with an accumulation of sand on its upper side. 

This sand Jack proceeded to clear out with 
his spoon, but as we had again used up our 
stock of clay, lie sent me back to the old place 
to look for more. There was very little left, 
but I managed to collect a double handful, in- 
cluding a small amount of the white material 
which I scraped up with my knife, and carrying 
it back to the scene of operations I handed it 
over to my chief. This time we did find gold, 
a small amount, certainly, but enough to con- 
vince Jack of what he had suspected all along, 
namely, that the vein was somewhere upon the 
mountain above the wall. 

‘‘We shall have to make a ladder,” said he, 
“ and set it up on top of the bank there in order 
to get up the wall ; a ladder twenty feet long 
will do, I think. But before we do so we will 
test the soil on both banks of the creek to make 
sure that the gold did come from up-stream, and 
not from the mountain on either side.” 

As we fully expected, our tests of the soil, and 
we made many of them, were unproductive; 
the vein, we felt certain, was somewhere on the 
mountain in which the stream had its source. 

With that belief impressed upon our minds we 


257 


High Time to Leave 

turned to, forthwith, to build a ladder. Carry- 
ing a couple of long poles to the highest point 
of the bank, and setting them against the wall, 
we next cut into strips the elk-hide which had 
once served as a door to the cabin, and with the 
thongs bound cross-pieces to the uprights every 
two feet of their length, making by these means 
a rough but serviceable ladder. 

Though by this time it was getting on to- 
wards sunset, we scrambled up to the top of 
the wall to make a brief survey of the country 
we proposed to prospect; and a tremendous 
task, it seemed to me, we had set ourselves. 
Dozens of gullies, big and little, wide and nar- 
row, straight and crooked, led down to the 
creek, in any one of which, and in any part of 
any one of which, the vein might lie concealed ; 
a vein perhaps no wider than one’s hand. It 
looked to me very much like a hopeless task. 
Jack, however, did not seem to be disconcerted 
by the outlook. 

^^We ’ll begin to-morrow,” said he, and 
take these gullies one at a time and search them 
thoroughly. It is my belief that the vein is 
composed of some soft material which washes 
away easily, and that we shall find it, when we 

do find it, in some deep crevice ; for, as you 
17 


258 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


will have noticed, all the gold we have washed 
out yet has been entirely free of any quartz or 
other rock, or of vein-matter of any kind — rather 
unfortunately, for we have no sample of the 
rock to go by. As it is, we shall have to bring 
down specimens of any veins we may find, grind 
them up between two stones, and wash them 
like any other gravel.” 

^Tt seems to me. Jack,” said I, ^Hhat it might 
take us a year to go over all the country that 
drains into this creek ; there is so much of it.” 

“ I hope not,” replied Jack, because we can’t 
give it more than a month at most. It will be 
high time for you fellows to be going home ; 
and what is more, at this altitude we are likely 
to have a snow-storm any day, which would 
cover up the country and stop our prospecting 
anyhow. Let us go back to camp now. To- 
morrow, while you are on guard, Percy shall go 
and bring in a deer, so that we may have a 
good supply of meat on hand, and I will come 
up here and make a preliminary survey, in 
order that we may get to work in a systematic, 
business-like manner.” 

This plan was duly followed out, and for 
twenty days thereafter Percy and I, taking it 
turn about, accompanied Jack up the mountain. 


259 


High Time to Leave 

tramping up and down all day prying 

into all its cracks and crannies, and bringing 
back every night one or more samples of rock 
for the sentinel of next day to grind up between 
two stones. And a blessing it was to the sen- 
tinel to have such an occupation to fill up the 
time ; for, as it was not necessary that he should 
keep his eye glued to the loophole without in- 
termission, he had a large amount of spare time 
on his hands. 

But of all the dozens of samples we ground 
up not one showed so much as a trace of gold. It 
was very disheartening. To Jack, especially, it 
was a great disappointment. After our astonish- 
ing find in the pot-holes his hopes had been so 
high ; he had felt so sure that before next 
spring the mine at Golconda would be going 
again, full blast; he was so full of plans for 
the future, when he and his father and 
mother and sister would be all living there 
together, that his disappointment at our non- 
success was all the more keen. And now our 
time was almost up. The threatening weather 
warned us that we must prepare to leave ; and 
not a vestige of a gold-vein had we found for 
all our searching. Poor old J ack ! He became 
more and more gloomy as the days went by ; 


26o The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


and what with the hard work and the shortened 
allowance of sleep — for he always took his 
share of night-watching — he was beginning to 
look quite gaunt and careworn. Percy and I 
had less cause for worry and more time for rest, 
but the work was beginning to tell upon us too. 
It was hard enough in any case, tramping over 
the rocks at the heels of a leader so eager and 
energetic as Jack, but the loss of one-third of 
one’s natural sleep made it almost unbearable. 
Day after day we became more and more tired ; 
the tiredness seemed to accumulate, it became 
chronic; we dragged our feet after us as we 
walked ; and as to running, nothing less than a 
ramping, raging grizzly bear could have induced 
us to run a step. 

It was a good thing we had those samples of 
rock to grind up in the daytime, or, I fear, 
without that occupation for mind and body 
there would have been a very good chance of 
the sentinel being caught napping, had there 
been anybody to catch him — which apparently 
there was not ; — for, all this time, we had seen 
no sign of Squeaky, and we had come to the 
conclusion that he must have been scared out 
of the neighbourhood altogether. 

It was after supper on the evening of the 


26t 


High Time to Leave 

twenty-first day of our stay in the valley that 
Jack came to the sentry-box where Percy and 
I were sitting over a little fire discussing our 
prospects, and after standing thoughtfully warm- 
ing his hands for a few minutes, he said, evi- 
dently with much reluctance : 

^^Well, you fellows, the jig’s up. We must 
go. We’re all pretty well worn out; and 
what’s more, there is a snow-storm brewing; 
and a heavy snow might make it difiicult to get 
out of the valley. We ’ll put in one more day 
here, and the next morning we ’ll pack up and 
get out. I hate to give up, but there ’s nothing 
else for it that I see. We must go.” 

But look here. Jack,” said Percy. It seems 
a pity to give up until we are obliged to do so. 
Let us take a day off to-morrow and rest up. 
And I believe we might leave off mounting 
guard at night if we all three were to sleep 
here in the fort ; Ulysses would never let 
anyone come near us. Then we should n’t 
feel so desperately tired all the time, and we 
could go on with our prospecting until it does 
snow.” 

“ That seems to me to be a pretty good idea,” 
I put in. “ And if it clouds up so that we feel 
sure that it is going to snow, why, then, we ’ll 


262 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

clear out at once. I vote that we don’t give in 
till we must.” 

You maybe sure,” said Jack, ‘‘ that I don’t 
want to give in any more than you do ; but 
I ’m afraid it is going to snow very soon, and if 
it does, that will be the end of our prospecting, 
for the ground won’t be clear again till next 
spring. You have noticed, perhaps, how the 
wind has been blowing from the south for the 
last two or three days ; well, it has chopped 
round to the north since supper, and that means 
snow before long, I expect. In fact, I would 
get out to-morrow, but that there are still two 
gullies I am anxious to inspect before we go. 
Percy and I will each take one of them, and if 
we make an early start we can give them a 
pretty thorough going over before dark. Then, 
whether we find anything or not, I think we 
must pack up and leave next morning. I ’m 
really afraid of being caught down here by a 
snow-storm.” 

“We ought to have some meat for the 
journey,” remarked Percy, who, as cook, took 
charge of such matters ; “ there is hardly enough 
left for three meals. How are we going to get 
it, if Tom is on guard, and I go with you up 
on the mountain ? ” 


263 


High Time to Leave 

We ’ll manage it this way,” replied Jack, 
after a moment’s hesitation. “ You shall take the 
smaller of the two gullies to-morrow, Percy, and 
whether you have time to go over it all or not, 
you shall come back here about the middle of 
the afternoon and go down to the lower end of 
the valley and get us a deer ; there are always 
deer to be seen down there, and you ought to be 
able to get one before night.” 

“ Very well,” responded Percy. “I’ll do so. 
We must have meat for the journey.” 

“ Yes. Three days’ supply, at least. It will 
probably take us that length of time to get to 
Bozeman.” 

According to this arrangement the pair set 
off at daylight next morning, while I remained 
on guard in the sentry-box. The day passed 
uneventfully, as usual, until about half-past four 
in the afternoon, when Percy looked in upon me 
on his way down the valley, and having handed 
me one sample of rock to grind, walked off 
again, his rifle over his shoulder. 

A quarter of a hour later, perhaps, I heard a 
shot. Ulysses, who was lying stretched out 
beside me, cocked up one ear, but otherwise 
took no notice. The next moment, however, to 
my great astonishment, he sprang up, leaped 


264 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


out of the fort, and ran, helter-skelter, out of 
the gully. 

I dropped my grinding-stone, seized ray rifle, 
and sprang to the loophole. There was nothing 
to be seen there. What, then, was the matter 
with Ulysses ? He must have heard something 
that I had not; something to alarm him, too, 
or he would not have thus deserted his post, — 
for the old dog, I believe, knew just as well as 
I did that he was on guard. 

I jumped down from the shelf and ran to the 
mouth of the gully, where I stood still to listen. 
I could hear nothing ; but, fearing that Percy 
might be in need of help, I ventured to run 
on until I had passed through the fringe of 
trees which interrupted my view of the valley- 
bottom. 

There, the first thing I saw was our herd of 
animals. They were close to the camp, each 
one standing with his head held high and his 
ears pointed forward, snorting and gazing down 
the valley. I looked in the same direction, and, 
instantly, I, too, forgot that I was on guard. 
I, too, deserted my post, and raced off down 
the valley. 

About half a mile away, and on the far side 
of the stream, was Percy, running, as never 


265 


High Time to Leave 

mortal boy ran before I should think, in my 
direction. Close behind him, in full chase, was 
a bear — an immense beast. It looked to me to be 
about the size of a full-grown steer, though not 
so tall. Between Percy and me — but a good 
deal nearer to him than to me — was Ulysses, 
going like a mad creature to the rescue. 

I had not cleared half the distance between 
us when the conditions of the chase were 
suddenly altered. The bear had come so close 
to Percy that the fugitive, fearing to be caught 
the next moment, doubled like a hare and ran 
back again towards the trees. The ponderous 
pursuer, unable to check himself so quickly, ran 
on for several yards, but then, doubling also, he 
was about to resume the chase in this new 
direction when Ulysses, leaping the creek, and 
rushing up the opposite slope, darted in like a 
flash and seized him by the hind leg. The 
enraged beast whirled about and made a slap 
at Ulysses that would have torn the dog in two 
had it taken effect. But our old friend was 
cunning as well as brave. He let go and 
jumped away ; and then the two stood, their 
noses about six feet apart, eying each other like 
two gladiators ; the bear growling and showing 
all his formidable teeth, and Ulysses going 


266 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


“ G-rrr, g-rrr, n-yam, n-yam, n-yam,” as a dog 
does when he sees through the parlour window 
another dog come into the front yard and 
scratch up the grass as if it belonged to him. 

This diversion, as I believe, saved Percy’s 
life. It gave him time to reach a tree, up 
which he went like a demented squirrel. 

Meanwhile I had come within fair range of 
the bear, and kneeling down I took careful aim 
and fired. That my bullet struck the beast 
was evident, for he roared with anger, and 
then, with an activity surprising in so unwieldy 
an animal, he sprang at Ulysses. Ulysses, 
however, knowing that in this case discretion 
was very much the better part of valour, nimbly 
got out of the way, upon which the bear turned 
short round and came charging at me. 

My ! How I did run ! Nobody knows his 
own capabilities as a foot-racer until he has 
undergone the experience of running away from 
a wrathful bear, whose firm-set determination it 
is to tear him to pieces if he can catch him. 

Though Ulysses, the moment the bear turned 
his back, seized him again by the leg, the big 
beast took no notice of him. Strong as a bull, 
he dragged the dog after him with ease, and 
even with that incumbrance hampering his 


267 


High Time to Leave 

movements he gained upon me at every stride. 
Fortunately, having a good start, I succeeded in 
reaching the trees while the pursuer was yet 
some distance behind ; seeing which, the bear 
gave up the chase and stopped again to slap at 
Ulysses. 

I had dropped my rifle, as had Percy, also, 
I found ; so, there we were, on opposite sides of 
the little valley, each perched in a tree, with a 
vengeful bear keeping strict watch and ward 
over us. I wondered how long we should have 
to stay there ; and I wondered also whether 
Jack would presently come to our rescue. From 
the positions of the two trees we occupied 
neither of us could see up the valley, and for 
the same reason Jack would not be able to see 
us. He might, however, observe Ulysses and 
the bear out in the open ; though not unless he 
came pretty soon, for the clouds were heavy 
that evening, and it was already growing dark. 

Two or three times both Percy and I made 
attempts to recover our rifles, but our watchful 
antagonist would not permit it, each time driving 
us back in haste to our places of refuge. The 
time wore on, and the darkness rapidly in- 
creased, but at length, when it had become so 
dark that I could no longer distinguish with 


26S The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


certainty between the dog and the bear, I saw 
through the branches of the trees a sudden flash 
of fire, followed by the report of a rifle. Next 
I heard the joyful barking of Ulysses, and 
directly afterwards the sound of Jack’s voice 
calling to Percy. Down 1 scrambled from my 
tree, and running to the spot whence the voice 
came, I found Jack standing over the body of 
the bear, while Percy had just arrived from the 
opposite direction. 

Hallo, Tom ! ” exclaimed our captain in 
surprise. You here too ? ” 

Yes,” said I, remembering for the first 
time that I was supposed to be acting sentry. 
“I was obliged to come. I quite forgot, I 
confess, that I was on guard, but I have no 
doubt I should have come just the same if I 
had remembered. I had no time to think, as it 
happened, but all the thinking in the world 
would have made no difference ; I should have 
come just the same.” 

I then related to Jack the circumstances of 
the case, upon which, to my relief, he remarked : 

“ I see. Yes, of course. You were quite 
right. You could n’t do anything else. I 
should certainly have done the same, even if I 
had known that Squeaky was likely to be down 


269 


High Time to Leave 

on us in the next five minutes. Oh, yes ; you 
were perfectly right. I think, though, you had 
better find your rifle and go back now. Percy 
and I will follow as soon as we have cut out 
one of the bear’s hams.” 

It was a long time before I could And my 
I'ifle, even with Percy’s help, and in consequence, 
when I did at length get back to the fort, it 
was so dark in the narrow canon that I could 
not see my hand before my face. However, I 
knew my way into the sentry-box well enough, 
and there I took up my station again until, an 
hour or so later, Percy came up to relieve me. 

After I had had my supper. Jack and I 
carried all our blankets up to the fort; for it 
was our intention to sleep there that night. 
We had had a hard day and were very tired, 
and as we expected another day as hard on the 
morrow we had decided to go without a sentinel 
for that one night, trusting to the ever-watchful 
Ulysses to give us notice if anyone should 
approach the bars. 

For half an hour we sat about the little Are 
we had built inside the fort, while Percy re- 
lated to us how he had accidentally stumbled 
upon the bear that day, and how the bear had 
cWrged upon him without provocation — a very 


270 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

unusual thing. After which Jack explained 
his part of the affair, telling us how, when he 
returned to camp, he had espied Ulysses and the 
bear standing in the midst of the valley, and 
how, guessing that Percy must be in trouble, he 
had run to help him, — never thinking that he 
should find me there as well. 

“ You must have been in a pretty awkward 
position, Percy, about the time Ulysses arrived,” 
said he. 

‘T was,” Percy responded. was badly 
scared, I can tell you. Ulysses, old chap,” put- 
ting his arm around the dog, who was sitting 
with his chin in the air, blinking at the fire, 
“whenever I get my share of that gold we can’t 
find, you shall have a medal. Just you re- 
member, now.” 

“ I ’m afraid he ’ll have to go without his 
medal, then,” said Jack ; “ because we must 
get out of here to-morrow as early as possible. 
I don’t like the look of things. I ’m rather 
afraid the snow may catch us down here. 
“ Come, let us turn in ; we shall want all the 
sleep we can get.” 

It was still pitch-dark when Jack’s voice 
roused us next morning. 

“Tumble up, you fellows, tumble up!” he 


271 


High Time to Leave 

cried. No time to waste ! Snow in the air ! 
We must dig out at once ! ” 

He was right about there being no time to 
waste. Already the snow, fluttering into the 
fort, was covering our beds with ominous 
rapidity, and, to our dismay, when we jumped 
down from the ledge we felt — for we could not 
see — that the ground was carpeted with snow a 
foot thick, while the continuous pattering upon 
our hands and faces proclaimed only too plainly 
that the storm we had feared was upon us in 
earnest. 

As it would be useless to attempt to And the 
horses in the dark, we set about the difficult 
task of getting breakfast first ; nor was it until 
we had finished that meal that there was day- 
light enough to enable us to see clearly how 
hard it was snowing. Jack was alarmed. 

Percy,” he exclaimed, run at once to the 
fort, bring down the blankets, and then put the 
packs together. Tom, take a turn up the val- 
ley and look for the horses. I will go down- 
stream. If you find them, fire your rifle. I will 
do the same. Hurry ! ” 

Away we all went, in three different direc- 
tions ; but Jack and I had not gone far ere we 
heard the report of a rifle in the direction of the 


272 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

canon. Back we hurried at once, to meet Percy 
coming down to the camp at a run. His face 
was pale, and he was so out of breath, more 
from agitation seemingly than from exertion, 
that he could not speak. 

“ What ’s the matter ? ” cried Jack, sharply, 
feeling a vague alarm at the sight of Percy’s 
troubled countenance. Anything wrong ? ” 

“ The horses are stolen ! ” he gasped. 

Most boys who have played through a foot- 
ball season will remember the sensation of being 
knocked over backwards by one of his oppo- 
nents taking him in the wind ” with the point 
of his shoulder. It was some such sensation 
that Percy’s announcement produced upon us. 
It did not knock us over, but it deprived us for 
the moment of the power of speech. Only for a 
moment, however. 

How do you know ? ” asked Jack, as soon as 
he had recovered from the first shock of this 
staggering news. 

The bars are down, and the dead trees are 
all pulled to one side,” replied Percy. “ They 
must have done it yesterday when Tom and I 
were down the valley ; and we did n’t notice it 
because of the darkness. What ’s to be done. 
Jack?” 


High Time to Leave 273 

“ Done ? ” cried our leader. Clap some bread 
and meat into our pockets, and follow at once. 
I don’t suppose we can overtake them, but we 
must get out of this place as fast as we can ; 
the snow is coming down harder than ever.” 

Without more words we set oif, and having 
toiled up the steep, snow-cumbered canon and 
waded waist-deep through the tunnel, we care- 
fully descended the water-slope and turned into 
the dry gorge. But no sooner had we turned 
the corner than we stopped short, with an 
exclamation of dismay; for a new misfortune, 
and one even more serious than the loss of our 
horses, had overtaken us. The great wedge- 
shaped rock had fallen, or had been upset, from 
above. The gorge was blocked. We could 
not get out ! 

18 




CHAPTER XV 


A WAY OUT 



HREE shivering, miserable mortals were 


X we, as we stood there in our wet clothes 
contemplating the impassable rock which barred 
the way. Two badly scared mortals were Percy 
and I, as we turned instinctively to our leader 
for comfort. 

“ What ’s to be done now, Jack ? ” asked the 
former, tucking his hands beneath his arms to 
warm them. There ’s no getting over this 
thing.” 

Then did our captain come out strong. If 
ever I get into such a predicament again, give 
me a fellow like Jack for a leader. He knew 
better than we did the danger of the position 
in which his bad management — as he considered 
— had placed us ; he was quite as much alarmed 
as w^e were at the plight in which we found 
ourselves ; but, seeing that if he should give 


275 


A Way Out 

way to his fears his two followers would in- 
stantly be plunged into the depths of despair, 
he assumed a cheerfulness he was far from feel- 
ing, and with an air of assurance which was 
most encouraging he answered Percy’s question 
as promptly and decisively as though, far from 
being taken by surprise, he had been thinking 
over the matter for a week beforehand. A very 
fine fellow was our captain ; though he would 
be the first to laugh at me for saying so. 

“ This rock must be about thirty feet high,” 
said he, contemplating the obstruction in a calm, 
critical manner, as though it were some natural 
curiosity, “ and, as you see, it fits down so closely 
there is no crawling under it. All we have to 
do, therefore, is to crawl over it.” 

“ That ’s a good deal, though,” said Percy, 
brightening up a little, however, under the in- 
fiuence of Jack’s example. “ How do you pro- 
pose to do it ? The rock leans over this way so 
much that we can’t possibly climb up it.” 

“We’ll bring up a thirty-foot pole,” replied 
Jack, “ lean it against the rock, and climb up 
that. Simple enough, eh ? So, let us get back 
to camp at once. You two shall transfer our 
baggage to the cabin, because I think it quite 
probable that we shall have to stay here until 


276 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

the storm is over, and a roof will be a good 
thing in this snow, and while you are doing that 
I will go and cut the pole, which we will bring 
up at once, so that, even if we don’t get out to- 
day, we may have it ready when we want it.” 

But, Jack,” said Percy, suppose we should 
not be able to bring the pole up here. 
What then ? Shall we — shall we — ? ” 

Shall we have to stay here all winter ? ” I 
blurted out, unable any longer to keep down 
the momentous question we all of us had in 
our minds. 

Stay here all winter ? ” cried J ack — and he 
actually managed to scare up a laugh. Not 
we ! Why, Percy, where ’s your American en- 
terprise ? Where ’s your English bull-dogged- 
ness, Tom ? Do you think we ’ll give in at one 
failure ? Not we, indeed ! If we should be 
unable to get over this rock, why, then, we ’ll 
just go up our ladder and walk home over the 
mountains. Give in ! I should think not. 
We ’re not babies ; we ’re men ! ” 

That was a grand stroke of Jack’s : calling us 
men. I felt myself grow two inches immedi- 
ately ; and Percy, taking his hands from under 
his arms, and repressing his shivers as well as 
he could, straightened up and exclaimed : 


A Way Out 277 

Go ahead, Jack ! You lead ; we ’ll follow ! ” 
Come OD, then ! ” cried our captain. 

Back we went at once, up the water-way, 
through the pool, and down to the fort, where 
we picked up our blankets and carried them 
over to the cabin ; after which Percy and I 
busied ourselves in transporting the rest of our 
baggage to the same haven, while Jack went 
off in search of a pole which should be at 
once sufficiently long and not too heavy. 

The better part of an hour passed ere we 
were ready to set out again, by which time the 
snow had so increased in depth as to be up to 
our knees, making the task of carrying the heavy 
pole one of great labour. After innumerable 
pauses to rest and recover breath, and after a 
great deal of manoeuvring to coax the awkward 
burden around the corners, we at length reached 
the pool. But there we encountered a new and 
unexpected obstacle. We were met in the face 
by a rush of wind, which was driving out of the 
mouth of the tunnel with force enough to make 
us stagger under our load. It had been perfectly 
calm down in the valley when we left it, and 
in the cleft in the rocks up which we had just 
come there was no air stirring, but judging from 
the blast which came out of the tunnel, we 


278 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


guessed that there must be a high wind sweep- 
ing over the hog-back above our heads. 

“Stop!” cried Jack. “You fellows wait 
here, while I go through and see what it is like 
on the other side. From the look of things, I 
expect we have got to get back to the cabin at 
once.” 

We “up-ended” the pole and leaned it 
against the rocks, so that it should not be 
buried in the snow, and then Jack, for the third 
time that day, waded into the pool. In a short 
time he came splashing back again, and reported, 
as we had expected, that there was a gale 
blowing on the other side of the valley-wall. 

“It’s no use to think of going on at present,” 
said he ; “ the snow is drifting badly out there. 
We should only lose ourselves; and the result 
of that would probably be that we should freeze 
to death or die of exhaustion, tired as we are, 
and wet through as we have been all day. We 
must make our way down to the cabin again as 
fast as we can.” 

We accordingly retraced our steps ; and it 
was well we turned back when we did, or we 
might never have reached the little shanty at all. 
As we were about to enter. Jack stopped and 
held up his finger. 


2 79 


A Way Out 

Hark ! ’’ he cried. “ Do you hear that 
booming noise ? The wind in the pines. It 
will be down on us directly. Come in, and 
help me fasten the waggon-sheet over the door- 
way.” 

Such a storm as that which burst upon us 
five minutes later I never saw before; and I 
shall be well content if I never see such another. 
The wind leaped upon us like a wild beast, and 
instantly the whole atmosphere seemed to go 
crazy. Our little, creaking cabin shook and 
trembled so that the mud chinking ” fell out 
upon the floor ; several of the stones composing 
our chimney came tumbling into the fireplace ; 
three or four times our door was dashed from its 
fastenings — when the room was filled with snow 
in an instant — and hard work we had to get it 
back again. 

The fierceness of the wind, and the whirling, 
stifling, never-ceasing rush of the snow were 
enough to frighten the boldest. It was one of 
those storms which drive the range-cattle head- 
long before them for miles and miles, until the 
poor beasts give in, exhausted, and fall to the 
ground, never to get up again ; one of those 
storms which, catching the solitary immigrant- 
waggon unprepared, pass on and leave it with its 


28o The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

occupants — men, women, and children, perhaps 
— and the horses which pulled it, all stiff and 
dead together. 

‘‘ This is a bad one, and no mistake ” said 
Jack, after one of our periodical struggles to re- 
place our door. “It is fortunate for us that we 
have four stout walls and a roof to shelter us. 
If it was Squeaky who upset that rock into the 
passage up above, he did us a good turn in my 
opinion. If it had not been there to stop us, 
we should have been caught halfway down the 
mountain ; and that, I expect, would have been 
the end of us. I don’t believe a man could live 
half an hour in this storm if he were exposed to 
its full force.” 

All the rest of that day we sat still or walked 
restlessly up and down listening to the com- 
motion outside, and all through the night we 
slept in fitful snatches, roused now and then 
when a blast of extra power burst in our door 
or sent crashing to the ground one of the trees 
on the slope close behind the cabin. It was an 
anxious night; nor did we get relief until mid- 
day next day, when the wind stopped as sud- 
denly as it had begun. 

Jack stepped to the doorway and removed 
the waggon-sheet. 


28 i 


A Way Out 

The sky was clearing rapidly, the snow had 
ceased to fall. Except for a few drifts, the 
valley was swept clean, the mountain-tops were 
bare, and the branches of the trees, which before 
had bent under the weight of snow, had now 
shaken themselves free of their burden. 

For a minute Jack stood in the doorway, 
silent, and frowning to himself, and then, Come 
over and look at the pass,” said he, and set off 
across the valley. 

The pass was gone — vanished ! We could 
not tell even ^vhere it ought to be, so completely 
was it filled up, and such a maze of drifts of all 
shapes and sizes was there among the woods 
which bordered it. The entrance — supposing 
we had found the right place — was buried under 
fifty feet of snow. 

1 glanced at J ack, expecting to see him over- 
whelmed by this crowning misfortune. But 
not a bit of it. He merely nodded his head in 
the direction of the pass, and said : “ No getting 
out that way seemingly. Let us go and look 
at the ladder.” 

But that way, too, was barred. Nature 
seemed to have made a dead set at us. A freak 
of the wind had piled a great drift upon the 
top of the wall just above the ladder, where it 


282 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


hung like a combing wave, ready to fall at a 
touch to all appearance. Indeed, a large mass 
had already fallen, breaking the ladder in two. 

Our case seemed to me to be pretty desperate, 
and from the concerned expression upon Percy’s 
face I guessed that he was of the same mind. 
But upon Jack this accumulation of difficulties, 
instead of casting him down, seemed to have 
the opposite effect ; it aroused his fighting-spirit. 

Give in ! ” he cried, just as though someone 
had suggested it, and shaking his fist at the 
world in general. “Not if I know it ! We’ll 
find, or force, a way out somewhere ! You see,” 
he went on, addressing us, “ some of these drifts 
are pretty sure to reach to the top of the wall 
somewhere, and as soon as the snow has settled 
a bit, and after the sun and frost have hardened 
the surface, we shall be able to get about, and 
then we ’ll make an exploring expedition. All 
we can do at present is to go down to the cabin 
and make ourselves as comfortable as we can 
for a few days. It is no good trying to get out 
while the snow is soft, we should bury ourselves 
in the drifts.” 

In spite of Jack’s heroic efforts to put a good 
face on the situation, I confess that I, at least, 
felt much inclined to despair of being able ever 


A Way Out 283 

to climb out of the old crater by means of the 
unstable drifts, while Percy, I have good reason 
to believe, felt much as I did about it. 

How we should have scoffed at anyone who 
should have ventured to suggest that anything 
could possibly happen to make us forget, even 
for a moment, the pressing question of finding 
a way out of the valley ! Yet such an event 
did actually occur ; and no later than the next 
morning. 

When I first described the Mushroom Rock I 
mentioned, it will be remembered, that the cap 
was split in two, and that the pieces overhung 
the stalk in such a manner as to make it appear 
that a strong wind might blow them down. 
Appearances were deceitful, however, or the 
late storm would certainly have upset them. 
But where the blustering wind had failed, the 
sun and the frost, working in turns, succeeded. 
The crack dividing the cap was drifted full of 
snow, and this snow the sun next day reduced 
to a state of slush, the frost at night converting 
it in turn into ice. The lateral pressure thus 
brought to bear upon them by the ice was suffi- 
cient to move the pieces the quarter-inch or so 
necessary to destroy their balance, and when we 
looked out of the cabin door next morning. 


284 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

there were the two great rocks lying on their 
backs — one of them bridging the creek. 

Percy and I walked over to look at them, and 
as we stood beside the fallen fi*agment which 
lay athwart the stream, our convei'sation — I for- 
get why — turned upon the subject of the pot- 
holes and the gold button that Percy had found 
in one of them. 

That ’s the hole,” said he, pitching a snow- 
ball into the water, “ and I should like to know 
why that one should have had a nugget in it while 
the others had nothing but scales and grains.” 

“ What I should like to know,” said I, is 
why we should find gold in the pot-holes and 
nowhere else. Is there a goose around here 
that goes about laying golden eggs and using 
these holes for nests ? Perhaps she has been 
along again by this time and laid another in 
your pot-hole.” 

“ Highly probable,” replied Percy, ironically. 

’ll look.” 

As he spoke he stepped over to the spot and 
looked down into the hole. To my great sur- 
prise he fell upon his knees, tucked up his 
sleeve, and plunged his hand into the water. 

Look here ! ” he exclaimed, holding out a 
yellow lump in his dripping fingers. 


A Way Out 285 

My imaginary goose had laid another egg ; 
an egg three times as big as the last one too. 

We were nonplussed this time. If the presence 
of gold in the pot-holes had been a puzzle to us 
before, what were we to think of the conjuring 
trick that Nature had played upon us now? 
Without a word — for, indeed, we had nothing 
to say — we hunied back to the cabin, outside 
which was Jack, busy chopping wood. To him 
Percy held out his hand just as he had done to 
me. 

Well, Percy,” cried the wood-chopper, 
straightening his back and stretching himself, 

what have you found this time ? ” 

This,” replied Perey, briefly. 

Jack dropped the axe and took the nugget. 

“Where did it come from?” he asked, open- 
ing his eyes wide. 

Percy told him. 

“What!” he exclaimed. “You found it in 
the same pot-hole that we cleaned out a month 
ago ? Well, that is the most astonishing thing 
I ever heard of. Where can it have come 
from ? ” 

As he talked he kept turning the nugget over 
and over, examining it on every side, and pres- 
ently, in a little crevice or fold, he espied a tiny 


286 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


white streak. Taking out his pocket-knife he 
extracted a little of this white material and 
thoughtfully spread it upon the palm of his 
hand. It made a mark like white paint. 

We two stood patiently waiting for him to 
offer some explanation of this mysterious “find,” 
when, with startling suddenness, he cast his 
knife upon the ground, slapped his leg, and 
burst into a great laugh ; a laugh half of amuse- 
ment and half of annoyance. 

“ Ho, ho, ho ! ” he went, stamping about and 
clutching his back hair as if he had been stung 
by a hornet. “ Oh my, oh my, oh my ! What 
a blundering dunderhead I must have been 
never to have guessed it before ! Here, give me 
a hand with this pole, one of you,” picking up, 
as he spoke, the butt end of a dead pine-tree 
which formed part of our heap of firewood. 

“ What are you going to do with it ? ” asked 
Percy, as he shouldered the little end. 

“ Show you that vein, I hope,” replied Jack. 
“ Come on ! ” 

Down we went to the stream, and there we 
reared the pole on end and leaned it against 
one piece of the prostrate cap, when Jack at 
once shinned up it and stepped upon the top 
of the rock. In half a minute he looked down. 


A Way Out 287 

at us and said, in a rather excited tone of voice 
Come up ! ” 

Up went Percy, with me close behind him, 
and soon we were standing at our leader’s side. 

Look here ! ” said he. 

About half the surface of the rock, originally 
its under side, was covered with a layer of 
reddish, clay-like material some two inches 
thick, across the middle of which ran a white 
streak about a span in width. Going down 
upon his knees. Jack pointed out to us little 
flakes and lumps of gold, showing in several 
places along the white streak. 

There is our gold-vein,” said he. It has 
been lying under our noses, or, rather, above 
oui* heads, all this time. The gold we got out 
of the pot-holes with the help of the clay balls 
came out of the clay balls themselves. With 
our own stupid hands we put the gold into 
the pot-holes, and then ^ discovered ’ it. Did 
ever such a thing happen before ? And to 
think that I never suspected it ! No wonder 
we could n’t And the vein up in the mountain, 
when, just as likely as not, this rock rode on 
a glacier down from Alaska or Hudson’s Bay, 
or anywhere else you like, ages ago, when half 
this continent was covered with ice.” 


288 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


‘^Then that nugget I found this morning,” 
said Percy, tumbled into the water when the 
rock fell down.” 

Yes,” replied Jack. “ And the water had 
not had time to wash it quite clean. It was 
the little scrap of clay left sticking to it that 
showed me where it came from.” 

I suppose this white streak probably runs 
across the other rocks as well,” said I. 

“ Probably. We ’ll soon see.” 

The three rocks lay close together, and being 
all about the same height there was no diffi- 
culty in stepping from one to the other. Each 
of them was traversed by the same white line, 
which, like the first one, showed scraps of gold 
in various places ; one scrap, which I picked 
out with my knife, being as big as the top of 
my thumb. 

At last, then, we had found that elusive gold- 
vein ; a small one, indeed, but to all appear- 
ance a rich one ; and having found it, we 
determined to make the most of it. 

That day, and the next three days as well, 
we spent upon the top of the rock exposed to 
the full blast of the wintry wind — for the 
winter now seemed to have set in in earnest, — 
each with a sheath-knife cutting a trench along 


289 


A Way Out 

the line of the white streak, and carefully sav- 
ing every scrap of the frozen clay thus labori- 
ously collected. By the time the work was 
finished, we had accumulated some five hundred 
pounds of the precious stuff, which we carried 
to the cabin and there proceeded to wash, a 
double handful at a time, in the gold-pan ; 
a slow and tedious undertaking. 

Our reason for doing this work in the house 
was that the little creek had ceased to how, 
being now frozen solid, and we were obliged 
in consequence to resort to melted snow for 
washing and drinking purposes. The iron pot 
was kept continuously upon the fire, and one 
of us was constantly engaged in bringing in 
shovels full of snow with which to feed it, in 
order to supply Jack’s insatiable demands for 
more water. 

In the corner of the house we dug a hole 
two feet deep to serve as a sink, and in this 
corner sat Jack, hour after hour, with his feet 
planted on either side of the hole, washing 
^‘dirt” in the pan, pouring away the muddy 
water into the sink, and saving the precious 
residue of gold and black sand. 

By the time all of the original five hundred 
pounds of clay had been washed, we found 

19 


290 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

ourselves in possession of about a tenth of 
that amount of black sand, which was then all 
washed over again with the greatest care. At 
last Jack declared that he was afraid to wash 
it any more, for fear of losing some of the fine 
particles of gold ; so our labour was concluded 
when the mass had been reduced to about 
thirty pounds’ weight, of which two-thirds, 
perhaps, was gold. 

Percy and I were anxious to know what was 
the value of the little heap ; but to make the 
calculation was beyond our power, for we had 
not the least idea of how many Troy ounces 
there might be in a pound Avoirdupois ; and 
gold, of course, is sold by Troy weight. 

Jack said he thought he could calculate it, 
and with a burnt stick he forthwith proceeded 
to work out the sum upon the waggon-sheet. 

“In the first place,” said he, “there are 
twenty-nine thousand one hundred and sixty- 
six Troy ounces in a ton of two thousand 
pounds Avoirdupois.” 

“ How do you know ? ” asked Percy, 
promptly. 

“ Learnt it in a book on assaying,” replied 
Jack, with equal promptness. 

“ All right,” said Percy, “ peg away, then.” 


291 


A Way Out 

are supposing that we have twenty 
pounds of gold here,” Jack went on. “ Twenty 
]:)ounds is one-hundredth part of a ton. H-m — 
h-m ! Two hundred and ninety-one ounces and 
a fraction Troy — say, two hundred and ninety. 
Multiply that by eighteen. Gold is reckoned at 
eighteen dollars an ounce up here in Montana, 
you know. There ! ” as he drew with his burnt 
stick a line beneath the total. 

Oh, get out ! ” exclaimed Percy, when he 
saw the figure. “You don’t mean to say that 
this little heap is worth five thousand two hun- 
dred and twenty dollars ! ” 

“ Something of the sort,” replied Jack. “ Of 
course there is a great deal of guess-work about 
it, but I expect that my calculation is not far 
out. I should n’t wonder if this heap, and the 
gold we got out of the pot-holes, were to mount 
up to six thousand dollars, or even more.” 

It was hard to believe that so small a heap 
could be worth so much ; but Jack seemed to 
be pretty confident, and so we took bis word for 
it, hoping he might turn out to be right. 

That our treasure might be packed in handy 
form for travelling we applied our time that 
evening to making little bags of canvas cut 
from the waggon-sheet, and these having been 


292 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

packed tight and sewn up, they were put into 
other bags made of buckskin, having thongs of 
the same material attached with which to tie 
them to our belts. 

There,” said Jack, as he restored the needles 
and thread to the case, and the case itself to his 
pocket, “ now we are ready to get out as soon 
as we can. AVe’ll try the drifts to-morrow. 
Those near the north end look most promising. 
We’ll try them first.” 

But, ns it happened, we had no occasion to try 
the drifts after all. Before we set out next 
morning, Percy suggested that it might be 
worth while to look into the cleft in the valley- 
wall through which the stream ran out. 

For,” said he, if this creek here is frozen 
so solid, it may be that we can walk on the ice 
down the canon, and if we can, that will be 
much the easiest way to travel, because then we 
can follow along the stream — which is sure to 
bring us out somewhere — instead of climbing 
over the mountains.” 

We ’ll have a look,” said Jack. ^^But I 
doubt if we shall find it frozen ; the water runs 
at such a tremendous pace.” 

Jack was right. The water was not frozen ; 
it was just as wild as ever. But we could walk 


293 


A Way Out 

over the top of it nevertheless. For at the very 
entrance of the canon, the stream vanished into 
a tunnel of snow. The great storm had drifted 
the gorge half full. Resting upon the boulders 
which cumbered its bed lay a heavy mass of 
tightly-packed snow, roofing the stream from 
one end of the canon to the other. 

We might walk out of the valley whenever 
we chose ! 




CHAPTER XVr 


ALL ACCOUNTS SQUARED 

HAT very day we started on our tramp 



X into the unknown wilderness, trusting 
that the stream would, as Percy had said, bring 
us out somewhere.” 

Heavily laden with a week’s provisions, our 
rifles, two blankets each, the axe, and last, 
though by no means least in importance, the 
little bags of gold- washings, and leaving all the 
rest of our camping outfit behind, we bade 
adieu to our late residence and set out, full of 
hope that now indeed we were homeward 
bound. 

Having passed over the snow bridge without 
accident — though Jack made us tie ourselves 
together with a long rope, like Alpine climbers, 
before he would venture — we found ourselves 
in a crooked valley of considerable width, walled 
in by high mountains down whose sides came 


All Accounts Squared 295 

many streams, which, uniting with the one we 
were following, formed a res[)ectable little 
river. Our spirits rose at the sight. 

This looks well,” said Jack. “ This is a 
stream of some importance, either the Gallatin, 
I should guess, or else one of its main branches. 
If we meet with no insurmountable obstacles 
we shall certainly get down to the settlements 
by following it.” 

It was getting on for sunset, and we were be- 
ginning to look out for a suitable camping- 
place, when our ears caught the sound of a 
dolorous howling going on somewhere farther 
down the river. Ulysses did not approve of it, 
for he stepped to the front, his bristles erect, 
growling to himself, and walking in that stiff- 
1 egged manner dogs assume when they see an 
enemy approaching. 

‘^Wolves,” said Jack, cocking his rifle; 
keep your eyes open.” 

Picking our way carefully and silently, we 
soon came in view of a little clearing in the 
woods, and there in the midst of it — a most 
unexpected and most welcome sight — stood a 
log-cabin about the size of the one we had that 
morning deserted. The door was shut, and 
before it sat three grey wolves, howling in 


296 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


concert, as if they were serenading the inmate 
of the house. At the sight of them Ulysses 
could contain himself no longer. He exploded 
with one great bark which had been accumu- 
lating in his chest for the past ten minutes, 
and instantly the three serenaders vanished 
like grey shadows into the woods. 

Advancing to the house, we knocked at the 
door. 

“ Who ’s there ? ” came a shaky voice from 
inside. 

‘‘Three travellers,” replied Jack. “We’d 
like shelter for the night.” 

We heard the inmate shuffle across the floor 
and fumble at the fastenings of the door, which 
fell open on its leathern hinges, disclosing to 
our view a miserable-looking specimen of 
humanity who stood leaning against the door- 
post for support, being, seemingly, too weak to 
stand upright. He was tall, hollow-cheeked, 
and red-eyed. His face, which to all appear- 
ances had not been washed for a week or two, 
was begrimed with dirt and “ blacks ” from his 
fire. A thin, dark beard covered his cheeks and 
chin, and his hair hung down below his collar. 
Added to all this, his clothes were so ragged it 
,vas a wonder he could keep them on at all. 


All Accounts Squared 297 

I did not recognize who it was until Percy, 
stepping forward, tapped the spectre on the 
chest with his finger, and said, “ Where ’s your 
partnei*. Bates ? ” 

It was Bates ! The wretched, half-starved, 
unkempt vagabond who staggered back, throw- 
ing up his hands before him as if to ward off 
an attack, was our sometime neat and well- 
dressed school-fellow. 

Don’t be afraid,” said Jack. ^^We don’t 
want to hurt you. Where ’s your partner ? ” 
don’t know,” Bates began, and then, re- 
membering himself : Partner ! What do you 
mean ? ” 

Oh, come,” said Jack. You might as well 
give up that farce. We know all about you 
and your partner. We knew who you were 
when you captured us the other day, though 
we pretended we did n’t. Where ’s Morgan ? ” 

I don’t know,” replied Bates, as he sank 
down upon the ground in the corner. I 
haven’t seen him for a week or more ; not since 
the big storm.” 

As he spoke he pressed his hand over his 
eyes as though he were giddy, and then for 
the first time we noticed how thin his hand 
was ; it was like a bird’s foot. 


298 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

“ Why, Bates,” cried Percy, “ you look half 
starved. Are you hungry ? ” 

Not veiy,” replied Bates. was yester- 
day and the day before, but I seem to have 
got over it.” 

Why, how long since you had anything to 
eat ? ” 

Three days, I think. I lived for some days 
on one of those grey wolves, but since that was 
finished up I Ve lived on snow, which I got 
from the roof through that hole up there.” 

On hearing this Percy and I bustled about 
to get supper ready, while Jack, spreading our 
blankets upon the floor, ordered Bates to lie 
down upon them, and not to say another word 
until he had been fed ; an order which Bates, 
not being able to help himself, obeyed. 

The supper of bread and meat being ready. 
Bates was given a goodly portion, which, with 
a self-control I had not expected of him, he 
ate with great deliberation ; and veiy much 
better be looked for it. 

^‘Feel better, don’t you?” said Jack, seeing 
how the colour had come back to his face. 
‘^Now, if you feel strong enough, I’d like to 
hear how you came here, and what you have 
been doing since you escaped from us in the 


All Accounts Squared 299 

dust-storm near Bozeman a month ago. But 
first of all we ’ll make a bargain with you : — 
If you ’ll do what you can to help us get back 
our horses, we ’ll say nothing about your part 
in the business.” 

Will you promise ? ” asked Bates, looking 
eagerly from one to the other of us. 

“Yes; we’ll promise,” we all three replied; 
not knowing that by so doing we were com- 
pounding a felony — though I doubt if it would 
have made any difference if we had known. 

“Well, then,” said he, brightening up won- 
derfully, “ I ’ll promise too, and I ’ll tell you all 
about it. When we escaped from you in the 
dust-storm ” 

“ Hold up a bit,” Jack interrupted. “ I just 
wanted to tell you that we had no intention of 
turning you over to the sheriff that time ; we 
had agreed to let you escape.” 

“ Had you ? ” exclaimed Bates. “ I wish I ’d 
known it ; I never would have run away, for I 
should have been only too glad to part company 
with Morgan. Well, when we escaped that 
day, we rode for twenty miles without stopping, 
and camped in a secluded place not far from a 
ranch. In the morning Morgan watched until 
the people went out to the fields, and then he 


300 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

slipped down to the house, and came back pres- 
ently with a bridle for his horse, a rifle and 
cartridges, and a piece of beef, all of which, of 
course, he had stolen. Then we mounted again 
and rode off. We were afraid to go back to 
the thieves’ den for the stolen horses, so, at Mor- 
gan’s suggestion, we went straight up the Yel- 
lowstone River, in the hope of being able to run 
off the stock of the Survey party. We came 
across a party, but whether of the Survey or 
not I don’t know, and made an attempt to steal 
their horses ; but they were too sharp for us, 
and chased us up into the high mountains, where 
the country was so terribly rough that we had 
to abandon our own horses and go afoot. We 
did not know where we were, until we found 
ourselves one morning upon the top of the wall, 
looking down into the valley of the Mushroom 
Rock. Almost as soon as we recognised the 
place we saw two of you walk up the valley, 
climb a ladder, and disappear up the mountain. 
As Swayne did not appear we concluded that 
he — and the dog as well, perhaps — was on guard 
somewhere ; so, by Morgan’s advice, we de- 
scended the ladder and took up a station among 
the trees whence we could watch your camp ; 
our idea, or, rather, Morgan’s idea being that if 


All Accounts Squared 301 

the sentinel should leave his post for any reason 
we would slip across the valley and escape.” 

I see,” said J ack, and you got your 
chance when Tom Swayne and the dog ran off 
down the valley to help Goodall.” 

Yes, that was our chance. We cut across 
the valley, and as your animals were feeding 
near your camp we drove them in front of us up 
the canon, and there I held them against the 
bars while Morgan slipped back to get a couple 
of saddles and bridles ; and as soon as we were 
ready I let down the bars, pulled aside the brush, 
and off we went.” 

^‘Did Morgan upset that big rock into the 
gully ? ” asked Jack. 

Yes,” replied Bates. His intention was to 
keep you down there until he should get money 
for your release from the people at home. But 
though I pretended to agree to this plan, my in- 
tention was to desert Morgan at the first oppor- 
tunity, give information of where you were, and 
get you out. I was afraid you would starve to 
death if you had to spend the winter down in 
that hole.” 

That was good of you,” said Jack. “ What 
did you do next ? ” 

We were afraid to go near Bozeman, so we 


302 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

turned to the left over the range, intending to 
keep clear of all towns and ride back to Utah, 
but as we rode along next day, the snow coming 
down like a blanket, — Morgan leading and I 
bringing up the rear, — my horse fell, throwing 
me off upon my head. How long I lay there I 
don’t know, but when I recovered I was buried 
completely in the snow, and Morgan and the 
horses were gone. I have never seen them 
since. I came very near to freezing to death, 
for the wind was blowing terribly, and after 
wandering about for some time I came upon 
this cabin, and here I spent the night. Next 
morning when the storm ceased I went out to 
collect fire-w^ood ; for my teeth were rattling in 
my head from the prolonged exposure to the 
cold. I had gathered a good deal and was go- 
ing out for more, when four grey wolves made a 
rush at me, and I had to retreat hastily and 
shut the door. They have been besieging me 
ever since — at least three of them have. I 
could n’t open the door an inch but one of them 
would make a dash for it. That gave me an 
idea — after my wits had been sharpened by 
going a whole day without food. I drove a 
stake into the ground behind the door, so that 
the door would open only about eight inches. 


All Accounts Squared 303 

Then, with a stout club ready in my hand, I let 
the door fall back against the stake. One of 
the wolves jumped for the opening directly, but 
his shoulders stuck, and before he could get 
back again 1 hit him a tremendous crack upon 
the top of his head and killed him. He was 
mostly bones, but he lasted me four days. Since 
then I have had nothing. The other wolves 
have sat outside, waiting for me to come out, 
so all I could do was to sit in here and starve.” 

“Well,” said Jack, “you certainly have had 
a hard time of it, but you are all right now. 
We’ll stay here to-morrow and give you a 
chance to pick up a bit, and then you shall 
come on with us to Bozeman, or wherever else 
we come out.” 

“ Thank you,” said Bates, “ you are very kind.” 
Then, in an embarrassed, hesitating manner, he 
went on : “I sha’n’t forget your kindness. I ’ll 
do anything I can to help you to recover your 
stock. And I beg your pardons, all of you, for 
my part in this horse-stealing business. The 
beginning of it all was my losing my money in 
a gambling-place. There’s another thing 1 
should like to mention,” he went on, after a 
short pause, “ though it is no concern of yours 
and may not interest you. While I have been 


304 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


sitting here starving and thinking, I have made 
a resolution. I will never bet or play cards for 
money again as long as I live.” 

Good for you ! ” exclaimed Jack, reaching 
out and shaking hands with him. It is a pretty 
rough cure for gambling, but if you stick to 
that resolution you will look back at this ex- 
perience of yours as the most fortunate thing 
that ever happened to you.” 

“ I ’ll stick to it,” said Bates, with a very 
earnest countenance. “ Never fear.” 

I may add that Bates did stick to it ; and as 
Jack had prophesied, he came to regard that 
hard experience as the most fortunate episode 
of his life. 

Our patient was so much recovered next 
morning that we wei’e able to make a short 
march of about ten miles, camping in a sheltered 
curve of the woods which the wind had swept 
bare of snow, and passing a tolerably comforta- 
ble night in spite of the cold. On the third 
day after this, climbing over a high ridge, we 
were rejoiced to see, far away in the distance, 
a wide-spreading plain, over one point of which 
hung a cloud of smoke. It was the smoke 
made by the housewives of Bozeman, getting 
dinner ready. 


All Accounts Squared 305 

We were naturally much encouraged by the 
sight, and went into camp that evening with 
the expectation that one more march would 
bring us to the desired haven. As a matter of 
fact, it did so, but with a change in our mode 
of progression we could hardly have anticipated. 

When, next morning, we crawled out of our 
blankets, we were surprised to find that the 
fire was blazing high, having been renewed, 
seemingly, a couple of hours before. But this 
surprise was small in comparison with the 
astonishment we felt when we discovered that 
Bates had gone ; and not only had he gone, 
but he had taken Ulysses with him ! 

It was most unaccountable. Had he gone 

off to explore the road? Had he ? We 

hastily felt at our sides for our bags of gold- 
washings. No ; that was an unjust suspicion ; 
the bags were all right. What then was the 
meaning of it ? 

Having shouted and whistled without effect, 
we were proceeding to cook our breakfast, when 
Ulysses bounced into camp and starting up we 
saw Bates running down the hill towards us. 

As soon as he could get breath enough to 
speak, he gasped out : I Ve found them ! 
I Ve found the horses ! ” 


3o 6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

Where ? How ? ” we all exclaimed together. 

‘^Over the hills in that direction,” replied 
Bates, pointing off to the south-west, “ in a little 
valley about .two miles away. Why Morgan 
has not gone farther I don’t know ; but there 
he is, I ’m sure.” 

“How came you to go over there ? ” inquired 
Jack. 

“ The cold woke me up this morning while 
it was still dark,” replied Bates, speaking 
quickly and eagerly, “ so I got up and put some 
more logs on the fire. Just as I was going to 
lie down again I thought I heai’d a mule bray, 
somewhere a long way off. Ulysses heard it, 
too, for he pricked up his ears, went over to 
that side of the fire, and began sniffing the 
breeze which blew from that direction. The 
sound came again. Ulysses appeared to be 
much interested — though why, I could not 
guess. He began to whine, and running a 
short distance towards the point from which 
the sound came, he looked back at me as if to 
invite me to go with. him. As soon as I took 
a step forward he turned and trotted on, look- 
ing back over his shoulder now and then to see 
that I was following, and in that manner on we 
went, Ulysses leading, and I, wondering where 


All Accounts Squared 307 

lie was going, hurrying after him. It never 
occurred to me that he might have recognised 
the mule’s voice, but I believe he must have 
done so.” 

He must,” replied Jack. “ And it must have 
been Calliope who brayed ; she is the only mule I 
know of whose voice will carry two miles. Go on.” 

^‘Ulysses kept going on and I kept follow- 
ing, up hill and dowm, until we came to a point 
overlooking a little valley, and there in the 
middle of it were all the horses and mules, one 
picketed and the rest loose. There was a shed 
of brush down by the stream, and the remains 
of a fire smoking before it ; and I have no doubt 
Morgan was lying asleep in the shed.” 

“ I ’m going over there at once,” cried Jack, 
full of eagerness at the prospect of recovering 
his friend Toby. “ I must have a try for the 
horses. Will you come back and show me the 
place. Bates ? I don’t ask you two fellows to 
come — it ’s dangerous.” 

“ Well, we’re coming, whether you ask us or 
not,” remarked Percy, calmly. 

“ All right,” assented Jack, laughing. Come 
on, then. We must eat our breakfast as we 
go. Bring your rifles ; we ’ll leave everything 
else here.” 


3o 8 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

We set off at once, single file, Bates a hun- 
dred yards in the lead, and after a tramp of 
about half an hour’s duration our guide stopped 
and came stooping back towards us. 

He ’s there all right,” said he softly, cook- 
ing his breakfast. How are we going to get at 
him ? He ’s right out in the middle of the 
valley ; no cover nearer than two hundred 
yards.” 

“ Let ’s have a look,” said Jack. 

Silently we crept forward, and lying flat upon 
the ground on the brow of the hill, looked 
down into the little valley. In the middle of it 
were a few scattered willows, and among them 
we could distinguish the figure of a man stoop- 
ing over a fire. Near him were the horses and 
mules quietly feeding; one of them, which we 
recognised as Toby, being picketed. 

That the man was Squeaky we had no doubt, 
but there being no cover, as Bates had said, we 
did not see how we were to come upon him un- 
awares and make him surrender, which was 
what we had hoped to do. We might shoot 
him in the back, without doubt, but such a 
course was out of the question, nor did it, I 
believe, occur to any of us. 

“ I ’ll tell you a way of doing it,” whispered 


All Accounts Squared 309 

Bates. '‘You three go round through the trees 
until you get behind him, and wait there. I ’ll 
walk straight down to him from here. He 
won’t shoot at me. I’ll get into conversation 
with him, and if I can find the opportunity I ’ll 
capture his rifle and run off with it in your di- 
rection. If I can’t get his rifle I ’ll tackle him, 
and then you must run down as fast as you can 
to my assistance. It is rather a mean, under- 
hand way of doing it, and so, if you will, I 
should be glad if you would let him go again 
after we have got back the horses. What do 
you say ? ” 

Jack thought a little, and then shook his head. 

" No, no,” said he. " It ’s too dangerous. You 
can’t trust a fellow like that. He thinks he has 
got these horses all to himself, and if you ap- 
pear he ’ll suppose you have come to claim your 
share, and he is just as likely as not to shoot 
you. It ’s too risky. I won’t agree to that.” 

" But, look here,” Bates argued. " I promised 
to do my best to help you get your horses back, 
and here ’s my chance. Besides, I don’t believe 
he ’ll shoot. At any rate I ’m willing to try it.” 

But Jack would not consent, and Percy and 
I backing up his opinion. Bates was obliged to 
give in. 


310 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

‘‘You are a good fellow, Bates, said Jack, 
“ to be willing to take the risk, but, you see, we 
are all against it. I ’ll tell you another way 
that I think may work; a way by which, if 
there is any shooting to be done, we ’ll do it — 
though I hope there ’ll be no occasion. We 
will all go round through the trees until we get 
behind him, and then we ’ll step out of cover 
and walk straight down upon him as quietly as 
possible. When we get pretty close we will 
call upon him to surrender. If he shows fight 
— why, then, I suppose we shall have to shoot. 
I ’ll fire first, as I ’m responsible for this whole 
business, but if I miss you must fire. What do 
you think ? Would you rather keep out of the 
business altogether ? I sha n’t blame you if you 
would.” 

Though Percy and I — and Jack, too, for that 
matter^ — had the strongest disinclination to shoot 
at a man, we could not leave our captain to 
“ go it alone,” as he plainly intended to do, and 
after an instant’s hesitation we both agreed to 
his plan. 

“All right, then,” whispered Jack. “Let us 
go ahead at once. Mind your footing. Don’t 
make a noise. Rifles loaded ? Cock ’em, then, 
and come on.” 


All Accounts Squared 31 1 

Keeping well within the trees, we started off, 
Jack in the lead this time, and walking round 
the valley until we thought we had reached the 
proper point, we halted again. 

‘^Take your places ten feet apart,” Jack 
whispered. Let me get a little ahead.” 

Creeping to the edge of the wood, he peered 
out, and then, beckoning to us to follow, stepped 
softly into the open. 

We had chosen our point well. Squeaky, 
sitting by the stream with his back toward 
us, was perfectly unconscious of our presence. 
Softly we advanced until we had covered half 
the intervening distance, when, just as we began 
to feel confident that the enemy had been deliv- 
ered into our hands, that marplot, Toby, betrayed 
us. He lifted his head, recognised Jack instantly, 
and greeted him with a neigh of welcome. 

Up sprang Squeaky, cast one glance behind 
him, and bolted in among the animals. With 
one jerk he pulled up the picket-pin, sprang 
upon Toby’s back, and clapping his heels into 
the horse’s sides rode off at full gallop. 

“ Stop ! ” shouted Jack. I ’ll fire ! ” 

But before Jack could even take aim the 
matter was brought to a sudden climax in a 
most unexpected manner. 


312 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

Squeaky had hardly got under way when the 
mule, Calliope, thinking she was about to be 
deserted by her beloved friend Toby, started 
off at full speed in chase. She was pretty quick 
on her feet for a short distance, and being un- 
encumbered by a rider she quickly caught up 
with him. The fugitive was leaning forward 
beside the horse’s neck, gathering up the trail- 
ing rope with both hands, when Calliope, com- 
ing up behind, stepped upon the picket-pin. 
The sudden jerk flung Squeaky to the ground, 
head first, — and broke his neck ! 

It was with a feeling of awe that we gathered 
round the dead man, and stood looking down 
at him ; thankful that it was not by our hands 
he had fallen. We were glad that we need fear 
him no longer, but we were far more glad that 
his death — to which he had been directly led 
by his own misdeeds — was due to an irrespon- 
sible mule, and not to any one of us. Though, 
doubtless, we should have been fully justified, 
both legally and morally, in shooting him if he 
had shown a disposition to shoot at us, it would 
have been a grievous burden to bear through 
life — the thought that we had had a hand in 
the killing of a human being. 

Rascal though he might have been, we felt 



THE DEAD MAN 




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All Accounts Squared 313 

that we could not leave him there to the mercy 
of the wolves and coyotes, and after a long 
pause, Jack, who had been kneeling beside the 
body, rose up, and said : 

“We must cover him up. We can’t dig a 
grave, having no tools, so the best thing we can 
do is to build a cairn over him. Tom, you and 
Percy go up into the timber and bring down 
some dead poles, the biggest you can carry, 
while Bates and I collect rocks.” 

In the course of an hour of hard work we 
built a frame of timber around and over our 
dead enemy, covering it with such a great pile 
of heavy stones that we felt satisfied no wild 
animal could get at him. Then, feeling that we 
had done all that lay in our power, we saddled 
the horses — for we found the saddles and bridles 
piled near the fire — and rode back to our own 
camp, whence we made all haste to Bozeman, 
arriving there safely after dark that evening. 

Our wanderings were ended. At last our 
faces were fairly turned toward home ! 

It was four weeks after this that we two 
stood upon the deck of a great steamship in the 
harbour of New York, shaking hands with Jack 
who had come across the continent with us to 
see us safely out of the country, as he said. 


314 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 


The value of our gold- washings, which Jack 
had sold to the smelter at Golconda, had proved 
to be considerably in excess of the calculation 
he had made on the waggon-sheet with the burnt 
stick. The sum he received was enough not only 
to start up the mine again, but enough to pay 
all the expenses of the trip, to buy our tickets 
back to England, and even to refund the money 
spent by our parents for the services of Mr. 
Hiram Jenkins. In fact, there was sufficient 
left over to buy a handsome, brass-mounted 
collar for our most respected friend Ulysses; 
that being, in our opinion, a more suitable 
present for him than the gold medal Percy had 
once promised him. 

^‘Good-bye, you fellows ! ” cried Jack, shaking 
hands with us for the last time, as the bell rang 
for strangers to leave the ship. Good-bye ! 
You won’t forget me, I know ; and you may be 
very sure I ’ll never forget you. Next time you 
run away from home mind you run straight to 
Golconda. I ’ll take charge of you. Good-bye ! ” 

With that he turned and ran across the gang- 
plank. The big boat moved slowly out into 
the river, one last Good-bye ! ” was shouted 
to and fro, and Jack’s kind, brown face was 
lost to sight. 


All Accounts Squared 315 

We had experienced many hardships since 
the night when Percy climbed out of the win- 
dow at Moseley’s, but the greatest of them all 
was the parting with Jack. 

The night was drawing in, when, some twelve 
days later, a dog-cart rattled out of Southamp- 
ton toward Moseley’s, and the old church clock 
in the village was striking eight as the cart 
pulled up at the vicarage gate. Percy and I 
descended from it, and having paid the driver, 
walked up the pathway to the house and en- 
tered without knocking. 

At the sitting-room door we paused to listen. 
We could distinguish several voices inside. 

My father is here,” whispered Percy, ex- 
citedly, at the same time digging me in the ribs 
with his elbow so violently that I could not have 
contradicted him had I wished to do so. And 
so is Sir Anthony. Hark ! He is talking 
now.” 

He gently opened the door. As we walked 
in we heard Sir Anthony say, ^Wou may de- 
pend upon it they will bounce in upon us sud- 
denly.” Then, as his ear caught the click of 
the latch, — “ And here they are ! ” 

Dear, dear ! To think that we foolish, fool- 
ish youngsters had ever run away from such 


3i 6 The Treasure of Mushroom Rock 

kind people as these ! We were fairly smothered 
with welcomes. If anything had been needed 
to convince us that Home was the finest place 
in the world — ! But what is the use of talking 
about that? Every sensible boy knows that 
for himself ; or else he is a very unfortunate 
boy. 

It was half -past twelve ere Sir Anthony rose 
to go home. 

Well, you young scapegraces,” said he, with 
a kindly twinkle in his eye, as he shook hands 
with both of us at once, 'm very glad to see 
you safely back again. I won’t prosecute you 
for poaching this time — on one condition, 
though. Next time you make up your minds 
to run away from home, go and ask advice of 
your parents first. Remember, boys,” he went 
on, abandoning his joking tone, and laying a 
hand upon the shoulder of each of us — “ Re- 
member : Whenever you get into trouble, go 
and ask advice in the right quarter. And re- 
member, each of you, that you never will have, 
and never can have, such perfect friends as your 
own parents.” 

We have found that out for ourselves, sir,” 
said Percy. 

“ You have ! I congratulate you. If your 


All Accounts Squared 317 

escapade had had no other result it would have 
been worth all the hardships you have suffered 
yourselves, and all the anxiety you have caused 
your elders to have made such a grand dis- 
covery. You are a very fortunate pair. So, 
good-night, my boys ; and welcome home ! ” 

Sir Anthony was a wise old man. I acknow- 
ledge readily and thankfully that he was per- 
fectly right when he said I never could have 
such good friends as my own parents. At the 
same time, I must not omit to state that there 
is a certain American — one Percy Goodall — 
who will always come treading very close upon 
their heels. 


THE END. 



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